Five Skies

Name: Five Skies
Brand: Penguin Random House
Availability: InStock
Author: Ron Carlson
ISBN: 9781429587211

Author: Ron Carlson

Narrator: Ron Carlson

Unabridged: 7 hr 25 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 05/17/2007

Categories: Fiction, Action & Adventure

Synopsis

Beloved story writer Ron Carlson's first novel in thirty years, Five Skies is the story of three men gathered high in the Rocky Mountains for a construction project that is to last the summer. Having participated in a spectacular betrayal in Los Angeles, the giant, silent Arthur Key drifts into work as a carpenter in southern Idaho. Here he is hired, along with the shiftless and charming Ronnie Panelli, to build a stunt ramp beside a cavernous void. The two will be led by Darwin Gallegos, the foreman of the local ranch who is filled with a primeval rage at God, at man, at life.As they endeavor upon this simple, grand project, the three reveal themselves in cautiously resonant, profound ways. And in a voice of striking intimacy and grace, Carlson's novel reveals itself as a story of biblical, almost spiritual force. A bellwether return from one of our greatest craftsmen, Five Skies is sure to be one of the most praised and cherished novels of the year.

About The Author

Ron Carlson is the award-winning author of four story collections and five novels, most recently Return to Oakpine. His fiction has appeared in Harper’s, The New Yorker, Playboy, and GQ, and has been featured on NPR’s This American Life and Selected Shorts as well as in Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Prize Stories. His novella, “Beanball,” was selected for Best American Mystery Stories. He is the director of the UC Irvine writing program and lives in Huntington Beach, California.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Will on March 29, 2014

Five Skies is a lovely, focused work about men, western men trying to cope with their demons, sharing hard physical work and coming to be friends and to help each other through this imposed closeness. Carlson is known mostly as a short story writer. It has been decades since his last novel. Unlike t......more

Goodreads review by Perri on November 29, 2015

A short spare story as quiet as a whisper- you have to pay attention or you'll miss something. Three men battling their personal demons are thrown together for a project of hard work in an secluded environment. I didn't like the ending but it felt fitting.......more

Goodreads review by Vera on February 04, 2011

As I read Five Skies I realized I was learning something about my father, that I had never thought about before. That's the way it is with novels that rise above the ordinary. Literature teaches us something about the people we know, as well as bringing to life places and people we don't know. "Meas......more

Goodreads review by Caroline on July 01, 2008

I read all of Five Skies, and I really wanted to like all of it, but mostly I liked none of it. Carlson's short stories are great, but this, his first novel, seems off pace and off focus. I was intrigued by the premise of three sort of "construction dudes" coming into their own and forming some impo......more