When On High
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Verve Books
Publishing:16th Mar '28
£11.99
This title is due to be published on 16th March, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
A timely and poignant story of masculinity, addiction and grief told from the perspectives of two Jewish-American brothers coming of age.
Phillip grows up in the glow of his mother's adoration, moulded by her praise and attention into a young man who values intellect above all else. However, his introspective mind soon becomes a prison, one that distances him from the rest of the world - socially, romantically, politically - and can only be escaped using drugs and alcohol.
An outsider to the closeness shared by Phillip and their mother, elder brother Donald is shaped by the long-distance phone calls he receives from their absentee father. This father-son bond feels entirely predicated on Donald's success on the wrestling mat, where he spends his teenage years grappling with competitors and his sense of self.
After an unexpected family tragedy strikes, the brothers are pulled apart and reunited over the course of their lives, forcing them to reckon with the legacy that they've inherited. A novel that is as much family saga as cultural excavation of modern masculinity, When On High asks what it means to become men in a country losing grip with what a man should be.
Roseman utilises the novel form to its fullest extent. It is a sublime and compassionate portrait of young manhood and the violent undertones of 21st-century America -- Djamel White, author of All Them Dogs
An epic and timely exploration of American masculinity. Assured, engaging and so carefully observed this is a novel which deftly straddles both a public and intimately personal exploration of what it means to be a man living through complicated times -- Jan Carson, author of Few and Far Between
Vivid and lucid, stylish and sensuous, When On High is a novel of emotional precision and quiet authority, delivering human insight along with the profound pleasure of reading. Roseman revels in the complex web of moments, conversations and minor events that compose and dismantle a life. Few writers are attempting work of this kind, and even fewer carrying it off as Roseman does -- Brendan Mac Evilly, author of Deep Burn
A gift of a novel - a living, breathing testament of brotherly love that explores toxic masculinity, addiction and grief. It truly floored me. The kind of book you force friends to read so you can talk about it, again and again -- Louise Nealon
A big, openhearted book about brothers and grief and language and the long derangement of our political realities. This is a book unafraid of its own ideas, and deeply interested in asking how it is we might imagine a future for ourselves. I had the rarest experience reading this, which is that I dreaded getting to the end. An immensely enjoyable novel. What an achievement -- Stuart Nadler, author of Rooms for Vanishing
ISBN: 9780857309181
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
416 pages