The Entire Sky, Joe Wilkins
The Entire Sky, Joe Wilkins
List: $27.99 | Sale: $19.59
Club: $13.99

The Entire Sky
A Novel

Author: Joe Wilkins

Narrator: Justin Price

Unabridged: 11 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/02/2024


Synopsis

With echoes of Demon Copperhead and Plainsong, a poignant story about a troubled boy on the run, an aging rancher, and a woman at a crossroads, who find unexpected solace and kinship in the family they make.
 
With his long hair and penchant for guitar, teenage Justin is the spitting image of his idol, Kurt Cobain—a resemblance that has often marked him an outcast. When the long-simmering abuse from his uncle finally boils over, Justin has no choice but to break free, in a violent act that will haunt him, and try to make it on his own as a runaway.
 
Meanwhile, in rural Montana, Rene Bouchard, a rancher nearing retirement, grieves the recent death of his wife. Her passing has revealed precisely how fractured the family has become—particularly the relationship between Rene and his daughter, Lianne. As old wounds ache anew, father and daughter begin to doubt the possibility of reconciliation, even as they each privately yearn for it.
 
Justin’s wanderings bring him to the Bouchard family ranch, and soon Rene and Lianne take the boy in as their own. But before long, Justin’s past threatens to catch up with him, jeopardizing not only his new bond with Rene and Lianne but also the home he’s finally been able to claim. With its lyricism, tangible evocation of place, and piercing insight reminiscent of the novels of Barbara Kingsolver and Kent Haruf, The Entire Sky is an unforgettable piece of modern, American fiction.
 

Reviews

Goodreads review by Nancy on June 02, 2024

ay a boy up and offers the inside of himself, and no one, not even his family, knows how to make sense of what they see. Say a boy holds it all in. Jesus, what chance did some boys have? from The Entire Sky by Joe Wilkins Montanaโ€™s gorgeous open spaces, the brutally hard work of ranching, the toxic m......more

Goodreads review by Adam on March 10, 2024

The Entire Sky is such an outstanding novel. Joe Wilkins deploys beautiful, lilting language to serve his setting and characters who deserve nothing less. The story says redemption is possible, no matter how late it seems. Along the way, the prose sings and evokes masters who have written the West a......more

Goodreads review by Abi on November 25, 2024

A remarkable story about good people dealing with the hard realities of life under the sun. When I say that I want to read more stories about dysfunctional/chosen families, this is what I mean. Human nature is laid bare in this book, for better and for worse. All the characters felt so unbelievably......more

Goodreads review by Kari Ann on October 21, 2024

THE ENTIRE SKY was Kari Catnip. It checked all the boxes. "๐˜ž๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ฉ ๐˜ฆ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜‹๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜Š๐˜ฐ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ฅ ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜—๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ด๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜จ, ๐˜ข ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฐ๐˜ช๐˜จ๐˜ฏ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ต ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜บ ๐˜ข๐˜ฃ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ต ๐˜ข ๐˜ต๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ฃ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฐ๐˜บ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ณ๐˜ถ๐˜ฏ, ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ ๐˜ข๐˜จ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ, ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ข ๐˜ธ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ ๐˜ข๐˜ต ๐˜ข ๐˜ค๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ด๐˜ด๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ข๐˜ฅ๐˜ด, ๐˜ธ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ ๐˜ง๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ถ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜น๐˜ฑ๐˜ฆ๐˜ค๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ด๐˜ฐ๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ฆ ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ฌ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ด๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ฑ ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ง๐˜ข๐˜ฎ๐˜ช๐˜ญ๐˜บ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜บ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ฌ๐˜ฆ." SOLD!! Kent Haruf vibes. Coming-o......more

Goodreads review by Caroline on March 23, 2025

I can appreciate that this was well written, but unfortunately the content was just not the sort of thing I generally enjoy. If this werenโ€™t for book club it would be a dnf. The last third picked up a little bit, but I take some issues with the pacing & it needs to be put in gratuitous flashback jai......more


Quotes

"Joe Wilkins's The Entire Sky exposes with strength and poetry the unjust pain of toxic masculinity and the profound damage it wages on children. In these pages a different potential for manhood is turned over and examined, one that allows for gentleness, healing, acceptance, grace. Wilkins gives an exquisite depth to the Montana landscape and to his characters—this is a textured, bloody, and breathtaking book."โ€”Sharma Shields, award-winning author of The Cassandra and The Sasquatch Hunter's Almanac

The Entire Sky is a beautifully written and deeply touching novel about a boy searching for safety and peace, a woman torn between the life she knows well and the new one she and her husband have created, and a man fighting to heal from loss and confronting the passage of time. Each of these characters will stick with me for a long time. I’ll read anything Joe Wilkins writes.”โ€”Deโ€™Shawn Charles Winslow, author of In West Mills, winner of the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

Praise for Fall Back Down When I Die:

"Wilkins delivers a Shakespearean mix of drama and mortal danger in crisp and beautiful language . . . He renders the effects of violence and trauma on the daily machinations of human lives . . . The world of the novel, rural Montana, is presented with the native realism of someone familiar with the people, language, landscape, and controversies of the 'way out here' . . . He captures the social dynamic of communities of few people spread over many swaths of land . . . This novel instills hope. Wilkins has produced a remarkable book filled with characters who, despite their inherent differences over how to exist on the land, remind us of the myriad reasons that every person might be loved."โ€”The Oregonian

"A heart-rending tale of family, love and violence . . . Through these characters, in a prose that can hum gently, then spark like a fire, Wilkins fashions a Western fable which spirals down to a tragic end. Following in the literary roots of Montanans Jim Harrison and Rick Bass, Wilkins packs a lot of story and stylistic wallop into this gripping, outstanding novel."โ€”Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Short story writer, poet, and memoirist Wilkins writes of hardscrabble life on the northern Great Plains with mesmerizing power, creating characters with rich if troubled interior lives who are desperate for agency and haunted by absent fathers. Wendell and Rowdy's slowly blossoming relationship is as lovely and breathtaking as the book's tragic ending is inevitable and devastating.
Suffused with a sense of longing, loss, and the desire for change -- asking deep questions about our place in the landscape and what, if anything, we are owed -- this is a remarkable and unforgettable first novel."โ€”Booklist (starred review)

"Wilkins's novel feels insightful amid the ongoing debate over public land and legal rights, but it's also timeless, and it treads the same kind of territory as writers like Kent Haruf and Ivan Doig, digging into quiet stories of people living close to the land."โ€”Outside Magazine

"Montana's rugged beauty is poetically evoked in Wilkins's fine debut. This is an accomplished first novel, notable in particular for its strong depiction of the timeless landscape of Montana's big sky country."โ€”Publishers Weekly