Open, Heaven

An achingly beautiful story of first love in the English countryside … Lyrical, atmospheric and transporting * Guardian, Summer Reads of 2025 *Hewitt is superb in his loving and acute descriptions of the natural world – SARAH PERRYA gorgeous debut novel about an all-encompassing first love… I promise it’s amazing! – Jack Edwards @jack_edwardsHeart-rending … sensuous and decadent * Financial Times *A beautiful, lyrical and tender novel of youthful passion and the longing for connection – FERDIA LENNON, author of Glorious ExploitsA beautiful novel about how a first love can shape a whole life – HELEN MACDONALD, author of H is for HawkA mature and complete debut novel … The central relationship occurs by light, sensitive touch, and reaches arresting emotional depths * New Statesman *Blisses with the bright verdure of youth … It’s a novel about us – KAVEH AKBAR, author of Martyr!A gorgeous debut … a novel that thrums with hidden love and concealed truths – ANDREW McMILLAN, author of Pity and PhysicalA luminous portrayal of two teenagers bonding with each other over one heady, transformative year * Waterstones *

Sean Hewitt was born in 1990. He is the author of two poetry collections, Tongues of Fire and Rapture’s Road, and a memoir, All Down Darkness Wide. He collaborated with the artist Luke Edward Hall on 300,000 Kisses- Tales of Queer Love from the Ancient World. Hewitt has received the Laurel Prize and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and been shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. He lectures at Trinity College Dublin and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.