Waiting for the Sky to Fall

"Tremendously capable and intimately revealing of a generation and a class." - Daily Telegraph



"Mr. Martin writes with enjoyment and eclectic good taste." - Times Literary Supplement



"One of the ten novels of the year." - Yorkshire Post



"Anyone who feels as if there were a curtain between him and the younger generation should read this novel." - New Statesman



"Keen observation and adroit writing." - Punch



Perkin Young and his brother Simon are typical of their generation, the first to come of age in England after the Second World War. They live in Chelsea on their father's money while they halfheartedly pursue literary and artistic success. Consumed with boredom and oppressed by a sense of the pointlessness of modern life, they spend their time at parties, in meaningless sexual encounters, or with their friends, who share their ennui. Perkin is in love with Meg, a young widow who lives with a famous novelist; Simon is after Anne, a girl so naive she doesn't realize the store she works in peddles pornography; their friend Jonathan is dating the cynical George, who runs a gay nightclub and brothels. As they move aimlessly through their lives, each waits for something to happen. But when something terrible does finally happen to Perkin and Simon, it threatens to shatter the fragile illusions of the world they have created for themselves....



Kenneth Martin's first book, Aubade (1957), written at age 16, was a surprise bestseller, and its story of love between two youths has gone on to become a gay classic. This first-ever reprint of Waiting for the Sky to Fall (1959), written at age 18, includes a new introduction by Martin, who discusses publishing the book as a teenager, his disappointment at the mixed reviews it received, and the experience of revisiting the novel for its republication 55 years later.