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WORK TITLE: We Own the Sky
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://lukeallnutt.com/
CITY: Prague
STATE:
COUNTRY: Czech Republic
NATIONALITY: British
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born c. 1977, in England; married, wife’s name Marketa; children: Luke and Tommy.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, journalist, and editor. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Prague, Czech Republic, editor.
AVOCATIONS:Long-distance running.
WRITINGS
Also author of the Kindle Single “Unspoken.” Contributor to periodicals. Authored a blog titled One Eyed Dog.
SIDELIGHTS
Luke Allnutt grew up in Surrey, England, near London. Since 1998 he has lived and worked in Prague, Czech Republic. He is a contributor to periodicals, writing primarily about technology and Eastern Europe politics. In “Unspoken,” a Kindle Single, Allnut wrote about his father’s death from a brain tumor. In 2013 Allnutt was diagnosed with bowel cancer and told he had a thirty percent chance of dying within the next five years.
After the diagnosis, Allnutt began writing his debut novel, We Own the Sky. Bookseller contributor Katherine Cowdrey quoted Allnutt as saying: “I wanted to create something for the people I love. All the emotion I felt from losing my father, fearing that I wouldn’t be around to watch my sons grow up, went into creating this family.” Allnut added: “I suppose the book was really a love note to my own family.”
We Own the Sky is about a man who feels blessed to love his wife and son but whose life unravels when a devastating illness hits the family. The novel opens with Rob Coates depicted as a lonely man who was once happily married. On his photography website, called We Own the Sky, Rob posts photos of various places he has visited with son, all part of his efforts to get over the trauma of his past. Rob, however, still grieves, and readers soon learn about his story and his estranged wife and son.
Rob meets and marries Anna while in Cambridge, England. The couple, after two miscarriages, have a son named Jack. Their life seems perfect together, at least to Rob. They live in a London townhouse, and Anna has a good job as an accountant. Rob has landed a contract with a startup technology company and works from home. As a result, over time the bond between father and son grows stronger each year as Jack grows, especially because Rob tries to make each day an adventure for Jack. “Allnutt creates an arresting intimacy [among] this family of three,” wrote Melissa Brown for BookPage, who went on to call the novel “funny, heartfelt and honest.”
Then Jack begins to have trouble with fainting and stumbling. When they get the five-year-old to the doctor, Jack is diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor, leading to ongoing hospital visits. Rob and Anna initially remain bonded as they seek advice from others in similar situations via online forums. However, their outlooks concerning Jack’s illness and prognosis begin to diverge.
Rob, especially, has begun to unravel as Jack is given a year to live after an operation proves to have no long-term impact. Eventually, Rob embarks on an obsessive effort to save Jack’s life via an experimental treatment he learns about on the Internet. The divide between Rob and Anna grows quickly as Anna has little interest in pursuing the experimental treatment, which she believes is a scam to bilk people out of money. In addition, Rob’s work life has not gone well, and the family cannot afford the treatment. When Anna has to go away for a family emergency, Rob decides to take Jack to Prague to receive the experimental treatment at a clinic. When Anna returns home and learns where her husband and son have gone, she quickly flies to Prague to confront Rob.
Although the treatments initially seem to be working, it quickly becomes apparent that they are doing nothing for Jack. In fact, they seem to make Jack even sicker. Rob going behind Anna’s back was another blow to their marriage, which crumbles. Enraged at the clinic, Rob decides to make sure that the experimental treatment does not harm anyone else. “This tender depiction of a father’s love for his son is utterly heartbreaking and will stay with you long after the book has finished,” wrote Express Online contributor Mernie Gilmore. A Publishers Weekly contributor called the story “tender and raw” and noted the “pragmatic prose as personal as a friend’s heartfelt admissions, with turns as unexpected as life itself.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 1, 2018, Mary Ellen Quinn, review of We Own the Sky, p. 24.
BookPage, April, 2018, Melissa Brown, review of We Own the Sky, p. 21.
Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2018, review of We Own the Sky.
Publishers Weekly, February 5, 2018, review of We Own the Sky, p. 39.
ONLINE
Bookseller, https://www.thebookseller.com/ (October 9, 2016), Katherine Cowdrey, “Trapeze Lands We Own the Sky in Five-Way Auction.”
Caskie Mushens Website, http://www.caskiemushens.com/ (July 6, 2018), brief author profile.
Daily Express Online, https://www.express.co.uk/ (February 16, 2018), Mernie Gilmore, “We Own The Sky Review: Pining for a Lost Son Drives on this Father of All Tear-Jerkers.”
Guardian Online (London, England), https://www.theguardian.com/ (August 24, 2013), Luke Allnut, “Fatherhood and Cancer: ‘My Wife Gave Me the Gift of a Life.'”
Luke Allnutt Website, http://lukeallnutt.com (July 6, 2018).
Trapeze lands We Own the Sky in five-way auction
Published October 9, 2016 by Katherine Cowdrey
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Trapeze has acquired "heartbreaking yet life-affirming" debut We Own the Sky by Luke Allnutt in a five-way auction.
The book's author, currently in remission from cancer, began the book after being diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2013, when doctors thought it was 30% likely he would die within the next five years.
Sam Eades, senior commissioning editor at Trapeze, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to the debut, which was discovered on the slush pile by Juliet Mushens at UTA, for five figures.
Total advances from around the world add up to a high six figures, according to Mushens. Prior to the UK deal, the manuscript was pre-empted overnight for six figures in Germany, and within 48 hours of submission it had sold in more than 10 countries. Following a six-figure US pre-empt, there are auctions and deals in 22 countries and counting.
We Own the Sky is about love: between husband and wife, and between father and son. Inspired by the author’s own experiences with cancer, the novel introduces the reader to Rob Coates, a lonely man once happily married to Anna, with a beautiful son, Jack. He runs a photography website, We Own The Sky, where he posts panoramic photos of the sites he visited with his son, and tries his hardest to forget the past. But no one can escape their memories for long, and slowly we learn what he is hiding from: Jack’s cancer diagnosis, the loss of his wife, and his obsession with saving his son, against all odds. It explores how we make sense of the senseless, and asks what would you do when confronted with the unthinkable.
Eades said: "Luke Allnutt is the next big commercial fiction sensation. We Own the Sky is a soaring debut, beautifully written and with an emotional pull that will connect with all readers. We Own the Sky shows us that the relationships we form and the love we feel for others gives our lives meaning, and that every life matters. Books that evoke such a strong physical response don’t come around very often and I feel unbelievably lucky to be publishing this book."
Mushens, agent said: "When I read We Own the Sky I knew immediately how special it was - it's page turning, heartbreaking and ultimately life-affirming. I cannot wait for readers to meet Anna, Rob and Jack."
Allnutt grew up in Surrey and has lived and worked in Prague as a journalist since 1998, writing mostly about technology and Eastern European politics. In 2013, he wrote about his father’s death from a brain tumour in Unspoken, a Kindle Single for Amazon. He said: "I started writing We Own the Sky while going through chemotherapy; I wanted to create something for the people I love. All the emotion I felt from losing my father, fearing that I wouldn’t be around to watch my sons grow up, went into creating this family — Rob, Anna, and Jack — that I loved and cared about so much. I suppose the book was really a love note to my own family. It explores how people facing an unimaginable loss manage to survive, how their love for each other can endure against all odds."
We Own The Sky will be published by Trapeze in January 2018 in hardback, e-book and audio.
Luke Allnutt grew up in Surrey and works as a journalist in the Czech Republic, writing for the British and American press, mainly about politics and technology. In 2013, he published UNSPOKEN, a Kindle Single inspired by his father’s death from cancer. He is a keen long-distance runner and proud Dad of two boys. If he had a Mastermind specialist subject, it would be the books of Judy Blume. His debut novel WE OWN THE SKY will be published by Orion in the UK in 2018, and has sold in 29 other territories around the world.
Luke Allnutt is the author of Unspoken, a Kindle Single about the death of his father. His debut novel, We Own The Sky, will be published by Orion (U.K.) and Harlequin/HarperCollins (U.S.) in 2018. He grew up in the U.K. and lives and works in Prague.
Fatherhood and cancer: 'My wife gave me the gift of a life'
When Luke Allnutt was diagnosed with bowel cancer, having a second child seemed essential – with the threat of life being taken away, he and his wife would create a new life. But initially, he found it hard to feel joyful about the pregnancy
Luke Allnutt
Sat 24 Aug 2013 07.15 BST
First published on Sat 24 Aug 2013 07.15 BST
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Luke Allnutt with his wife, Marketa: 'I think of a boy growing up with a sick dad, not like other dads: Chemo Dad.'
W
e were lucky, my wife said. Back home, drinking coffee after the scan, after seeing the baby's heartbeat for the first time, the word "lucky" hung in the air. We talked in the future tense now, rather than the conditional.
Lucky. The word stuck in my throat. I knew I was destroying the mood, the good vibes after the scan. I didn't feel lucky, I said. I refused to accept that there was anything lucky about my life right now.
On 2 April this year, at the age of 36, I was diagnosed with stage-three bowel cancer. A couple of weeks later, I had an operation to take out a large chunk of my colon and the cancerous lymph nodes. The doctor said there is a 50% chance of the cancer coming back. In May, I started six months of chemotherapy to kill any rogue cancer cells that might be floating around my body.
A second baby hadn't been in the game plan, but then neither was cancer. We had talked in the past about a brother or sister for our two-year-old, Tommy, but there were careers, money worries. Then, one night, after my diagnosis and before surgery, in a grotty London hotel, in a haze of worsening news and the spectre of metastasis, my wife and I clung to each other. There was urgency now, a need to do something life-affirming. There was no discussion, no agreement, just a shared and unquestioned assumption: with the threat of a life being taken away, we would create a life.
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In the kitchen after the scan, my wife, Marketa, pressed on. We were lucky because there were plenty of people who couldn't have children. People lost babies and here we were with a healthy one growing inside her. Even with cancer, even having to undergo the degradations of chemotherapy, I could perhaps understand that someone, looking at our lives, might see us as lucky: to have conceived so flippantly, so undeservedly, like some reckless teenage couple on Jeremy Kyle.
But still, I didn't feel lucky. There was nothing lucky about our situation.
In those first tentative weeks, I told a few people that Marketa was pregnant. I talked about it as a source of hope, a ray of light in dark times, but these were just words, inadequate metaphors that didn't remotely describe the complexity of how I felt. Then, as the weeks went on and we found out we were probably having a boy, the whole thing became infinitely more real. Not an "it" any more, a medical abstraction, a cluster of cells, but a person with hands and feet, one I could imagine holding in my arms and watching him grow.
Luke with his first son, Tommy, when he was nine months old.
But as my son has become more real, so have my fears. Beyond the immediate practicalities of how we will cope – a pregnant wife, an overactive toddler, a husband enduring chemotherapy – I am desperately scared of the future, especially if my cancer progresses. I think of a boy growing up with a sick dad, not like all the other dads. Chemo Dad: withered, hairless, on his last legs. I think of the possibility of endless treatments and chemotherapy and future surgeries spoiling the first years with our new son. Nerve-damaged hands too painful to pick him up. A battered immune system keeping me away from his cot. Overwhelming fatigue and despondency tainting the joy.
Even worse, I think of a boy growing up without a father. To my son, I would be a photograph, a recorded video on each and every birthday. I would be a presence still – someone talked about every now and then – but I would be an abstraction, the way he was to me once, just a cluster of cells.
I imagine moments, rites of passage – learning to ride his bike, first time at the football, school plays, graduations – but it is a picture from which I am absent. I like to think that he would think of me quietly at such times, but never show it, never shed a tear, up there on that podium, emboldened by a stoicism that comes from losing your father when you're young, not to be beaten, leaning into the wind, just like his dad would have done.
I have noticed – or perhaps it is my imagination – that when I tell people about Marketa's pregnancy, their reaction is cautious. I think back to when she was pregnant for the first time and how people responded then – a blur of glass-chinking and talk of good swimmers and well in, my son, well in. Now when I tell people, I see a moment of hesitation. I try to read their faces to see if I can see in them a little of the same doubt that sits deep within me. Are they thinking the same? A child without a father? That this is a pregnancy laden with doom?
With cancer, you fight these feelings, trying to "stay positive". I implore myself to stop thinking like this, focus on that beautiful baby, that miracle. But despair has a habit of rushing in like a tide, catching you out, leaving you stranded when you least expect it. It is the good moments that spawn the darkest thoughts, as you are reminded of what you might lose. Cancer taints everything. I cannot watch my son play happily in the garden now without feeling an anticipatory sense of loss.
My wife was right, of course. I knew it from the beginning, from the very first time she mentioned the word lucky. I was being obstinate, too caught up in myself, too angry about having cancer, to see anything good in anything.
Now I am sitting with the ultrasound images in my hand. In the grainy pictures, I can see the faint shape of my wife's lower lip. I can see our son glugging for a hungry breath. He seems to hold himself placidly, almost thoughtfully. When I see the swell of Marketa's belly now and her joy at being pregnant again, I feel lucky.
I'm lucky because of all the many wonderful things my wife has given me, this is the most generous. Not only is it the gift of a future life, but it was a vote of confidence in me, in our life together. A promise that said, I know you will get better, you have to get better.
When I look more closely at the ultrasounds, when I put the scans in a sequence, there is something comforting about the division of my son's cells. In its steadiness, it is the antithesis of the haphazard and impetuous divisions that have been taking place within my body. I take comfort in his orderly growth, his weekly progression in centimetres, his adherence to a strict timeline.
There is nothing random or reckless about the way he grows. Everything is preordained. The molecules in his body will not betray him. He will not suddenly mutate, or try to leave the womb. He will grow where he is meant to grow, safe and happy in the warm.
• Read Luke Allnutt's blog at theoneeyeddog.com
Originally from the U.K., I’ve lived and worked in Prague since 1998.
I work as an editor at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and have written for various publications about technology and Eastern European politics.
I wrote about my father’s death from a brain tumor in Unspoken, a Kindle Single for Amazon. My debut novel, We Own The Sky, will be published in the U.K. by Trapeze (Orion) in January 2018.
Allnutt, Luke: WE OWN THE SKY
Kirkus Reviews. (Feb. 15, 2018):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Allnutt, Luke WE OWN THE SKY Park Row Books (Adult Fiction) $26.99 4, 3 ISBN: 978-0-7783-1473-8
A couple is torn apart by a child's cancer in Allnutt's debut.
From the first chapters, readers know that something has gone seriously awry in the marriage of young upper-middle-class Brits Rob and Anna. Addled by vodka, Rob wakes up to discover that Anna and their young son, Jack, are gone. There follows an extended flashback detailing how this came about. The couple met while attending Cambridge, she in economics and he in computer science. Degreed, they soon settle down to a comfortable London life: She's an accountant; he has a lucrative contract with a startup. After two miscarriages, Anna and Rob are overjoyed at the birth of a son. As Jack grows, he bonds with stay-at-home dad Rob, whose career dilemmas, interposed at this point, do little to either advance the story or illuminate his character. Similarly, beyond the stereotypical attributes of her trade, we never learn much about Anna. At age 5, Jack is diagnosed with a brain tumor. Two specialists are consulted and surgery performed, affording provisional hope: A celebratory vacation in Crete ensues. But Jack has a relapse, and this time only palliative measures are possible. Rob consults Hope's Place, a social media forum, obsessively following "Nev," one poster whose son Josh had a similar malignancy. Josh is now in complete remission thanks to the ministrations of a Dr. Sladkovsky in Prague. Sladkovsky's clinic, though pricey, has purportedly worked miracles with "immuno-engineering." Suspecting snake oil and concerned about finances, Anna balks at this expedient. (The costs, if any, of Jack's U.K. treatment are never addressed, which U.S. readers might find disappointing.) When a family emergency calls Anna away, Rob, desperate that time is running out, spirits Jack to Prague. Sladkovsky's experimental protocols seem to be working--then an irate Anna arrives. In its depiction of ordinary people in dire circumstances, the book opts for uplifting messages over controversy. Sympathy for Allnutt's characters is de rigueur; unfortunately, they lack the depth to command it.
Undeniably well-meaning but too circumspect in its approach.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Allnutt, Luke: WE OWN THE SKY." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Feb. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A527248200/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ac633044. Accessed 23 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A527248200
We Own the Sky
Mary Ellen Quinn
Booklist. 114.13 (Mar. 1, 2018): p24.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
We Own the Sky. By Luke Allnutt. Apr. 2018.368p. Park Row, $26.9919780778314738).
Rob and Anna meet when they are students at Cambridge, and despite differences in their backgrounds and temperaments, they get married. They are devastated when their son, Jack, conceived after two miscarriages, is diagnosed with a brain tumor at age five. Rob does what almost anyone facing a medical crisis does these days--he becomes obsessed with looking for information online and soon discovers a discussion forum, Hope's Place, for parents of children with brain tumors. A seemingly successful surgery is just a reprieve, and the prospect of losing Jack puts the differences between Rob and Anna into sharp relief. Tensions come to a head when Rob takes Jack to Prague to seek a radical treatment from a doctor he learned about on Hopes Place. British first-novelist Allnutt plunges the reader into narrator Rob's experience of searing loss and the attendant denial, fear, anger, guilt, blame, and grief. The book's title refers to Robs photography website, where he tries to stay connected to his son by posting panoramas and coded messages about places they visited together. Heartrending.--Mary Ellen Quinn
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Quinn, Mary Ellen. "We Own the Sky." Booklist, 1 Mar. 2018, p. 24. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532250832/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=25a968a9. Accessed 23 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A532250832
WE OWN THE SKY
Melissa Brown
BookPage. (Apr. 2018): p21.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 BookPage
http://bookpage.com/
Full Text:
WE OWN THE SKY
By Luke Allnutt
Park Row $26.99, 368 pages ISBN 9780778314738 Audio, eBook available
DEBUT FICTION
Everything changes in a couple's life when they go from being "just us" to "we three." Rob meets Anna at Cambridge; love and marriage ensue; and then there's Jack. Winsome, beautiful Jack loves tall buildings, taking pictures with his very own camera and eating special cheese on toast. He is adored by his parents, who are in awe of him--after all, it was so hard to conceive.
In We Own the Sky, first-time novelist Luke Allnutt creates an arresting intimacy between this family of three. The center around which Rob and Anna now spin is Jack. Work and friends and all the rest that used to define their lives fade to the background, especially after 5-year-old Jack's stumbles and fainting spells lead to an upending, devastating diagnosis.
From that moment, their lives are thrust into a world of hospital visits and online support forums, where Rob and Anna seek advice from parents who have been down this road before. In time, Rob and Anna start to approach Jack's illness with very different attitudes, and the divide begins to crack them apart.
Funny, heartfelt and honest, We Own the Sky is hard to put down but equally difficult to pick back up. Allnutt excels at capturing the full range of emotion and how a single moment can crystallize your whole life--dividing it into "important" and "not important," before and after.
When a softhearted taxi driver won't accept Rob's payment for their ride after yet another doctor's visit, Allnutt writes, "Sometimes love comes from the strangest places. People don't realize how much they can break your heart." In writing We Own the Sky, Allnutt proves that sometimes authors don't know their heartbreaking power either.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Brown, Melissa. "WE OWN THE SKY." BookPage, Apr. 2018, p. 21. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532528582/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=2b3671e4. Accessed 23 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A532528582
We Own the Sky
Publishers Weekly. 265.6 (Feb. 5, 2018): p39.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* We Own the Sky
Luke Allnutt. Park Row, $26.99 (368p)
ISBN 978-0-7783-1473-8
This impressive debut from Allnutt doggedly recounts a young family's tragedy. Between programmer Rob Coates's relentless optimism, his auditor wife Anna's knack for order, and their son Jack's joyful demeanor, their life in London is happy and full of love. But when a tumor is found in Jack's brain, the bonds of the marriage are tested. After Jack is given a year to live, Rob becomes intrigued by an experimental treatment he learns about from an online forum. Though Anna isn't interested in pursuing it, Rob goes behind her back while she is away and takes Jack to the clinic in Prague. But the questionable treatments administered to Jack only worsen his health. As his marriage crumbles, Rob becomes determined to atone for his mistake by making sure no one else is hurt by the bogus clinic. Rob's experience as a father of a child stricken with cancer is punishing, marked by a desperate belief that a cure is just around the corner, frustration with well-meant and poorly delivered sympathy, and renewed appreciation for the smallest comfort and kindness. The resulting story is tender and raw, spun in pragmatic prose as personal as a friend's heartfelt admissions, with turns as unexpected as life itself. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"We Own the Sky." Publishers Weekly, 5 Feb. 2018, p. 39. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A526810361/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=49e99a28. Accessed 23 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A526810361
We Own The Sky review: Pining for a lost son drives on this father of all tear-jerkers
His hands shake so much that he struggles to count out change for another drink. A kindly barmaid has to take the money from his hand, as if he were “a frail pensioner”.
By Mernie Gilmore
PUBLISHED: 00:01, Fri, Feb 16, 2018 | UPDATED: 12:28, Fri, Feb 16, 2018
0
NC
This tender depiction of a father’s love for his son is utterly heartbreaking and will stay with you
In a drunken stupor, he meets a woman in the pub and they spend the night together. He creeps out of her house without saying goodbye, returning to the cottage he has rented and starts to drink again.
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It is a depressing and lonely existence, brightened only by the photographs he takes for his website We Own The Sky where he posts panoramic pictures of dramatic landscapes around the UK.
Throughout all of this, Rob’s thoughts return time and time again to Anna, his estranged wife, and their son Jack.
He is both angry and bereft, posting hidden messages for Jack on his website, highlighting the places they once visited together.
“They are, I suppose, the things I would say to him if I could. The things I would say if she hadn’t taken him away.”
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The story of Rob, Anna and Jack and how their little family falls apart is at the heart of this assured and tear-jerking debut from Luke Allnutt.
Narrated by Rob, the novel moves between past and present, from the gloomy pub in Cornwall to Rob and Anna’s first meeting as undergraduates at Cambridge University.
They are unlike each other in almost every way: background, attitude and future goals.
“Anna always thought I was a bit rough, could never quite shake off the council estate,” he snipes.
Despite this they fall in love and for a while Rob feels as if he is the luckiest man in the world. Then their son Jack is born and Rob is changed for ever.
NC
We Own The Sky was written just after author Luke Allnutt was diagnosed with bowel cancer
“In the baby books I read, they said it would take time to develop a bond, that while Anna would feel it, with me it would take time. It wasn’t true. I felt it instantly and it was like a lightning bolt down my neck, my spine, a feeling that everything, everything had been for this.”
But when Jack is seven, he is diagnosed with a serious illness. It tears the family apart and as Rob and Anna struggle to cope, their differences come to the fore. Rob is determined to do everything he can to save his son; but at what cost?
We Own The Sky was written just after the author was diagnosed with bowel cancer, when he was overwhelmed by a sense of loss and “an utter certainty I would die and everything I loved would be gone”.
Loss and love are the themes that wind their way through We Own The Sky, nowhere more so than in the relationship between Rob and Jack.
This tender depiction of a father’s love for his son is utterly heartbreaking and will stay with you long after the book has finished.
Just make sure you stock up on tissues before reading. If you’re anything like me, chances are you’ll need an entire box.