All That Is Solid Melts Into Air

"Brilliantly imagined in its harrowing account of the Chernobyl disaster and exhilarating in its sweep, All That Is Solid Melts into Air is a debut to rattle all the windows and open up the ventricles of the heart. . . . The book is daring, exhilarating, generous and beautifully written." -- Colum McCann

A brilliant and gripping novel set against the tragedy of Chernobyl and the way in which the lives of its survivors were forever changed in its wake. Part historical epic, part love story, it recalls The English Patient in its mix of emotional intimacy and sweeping landscape.

Russia, 1986. On a run-down apartment block in Moscow, a nine-year-old prodigy plays his piano silently for fear of disturbing the neighbors. In a factory on the outskirts of the city, his aunt makes car parts, hiding her dissident past. In a nearby hospital, a surgeon immerses himself in his work, avoiding his failed marriage.

And in a village in Belarus, a teenage boy wakes to a sky of the deepest crimson. Outside, the ears of his neighbor's cattle are dripping blood. Ten miles away, at the Chernobyl Power Plant, something unimaginable has happened. Now their lives will change forever.

An end-of-empire novel charting the collapse of the Soviet Union, All That Is Solid Melts into Air is a riveting and epic love story by a major new talent.

Author: Darragh McKeon
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: 04/29/2014
Pages: 464
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.30w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780062246875

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 02/24/2014
Kirkus Reviews 03/15/2014
Library Journal 04/15/2014 pg. 78
Booklist 04/15/2014 pg. 14
Library Journal 05/01/2014 pg. 68
New York Times Book Review 08/17/2014 pg. 30

About the Author
McKeon, Darragh: -

Darragh McKeon was born in 1979 and grew up in the midlands of Ireland. He has worked as a theater director and lives in New York. This is his first novel.