<p>If the Sky Falls is the debut short-story collection from award-winning fiction writer Nicholas Montemarano. These eleven stories show why Jayne Anne Phillips has called Montemarano "an American stylist capable of redeeming our darkest dreams."<br>Redemption in these intense and sometimes violent stories is found in the lyrical prose, in the act of storytelling itself. A young man tries to rescue his sister from her abusive lover, and in the process must revisit his own family's violent history ("Note to Future Self"); a home healthcare worker pops pills and takes two men with cerebral palsy to a strip club ("The Usual Human Disabilities"); a man has a breakdown years after witnessing a brutal murder and doing nothing to help the victim ("The Other Man"). In "The November Fifteen," a man is taken from his home and tortured, though he has no idea why; when he returns home he finds a different kind of torture awaiting him.<br>Two of the stories -- "Shift" and the Pushcart Prize--winning "The Worst Degree of Unforgivable" -- are stylistic tours de force. But style in this collection is always at the service of story. Montemarano's fiction maintains that rare balance between traditional storytelling and experimentation: his work is innovative without being flashy, sincere without being sentimental. In an age of hype, If the Sky Falls truly is the real thing -- an original and important achievement in the short-story form.</p> Read Less