Seán Hewitt is a poet, memoirist, novelist and literary critic – both his debut poetry collection “Tongues of Fire” (2020) and his memoir “All Down Darkness Wide” (2022) won literary prizes, and received multiple prize listings and by coincidence on the very day I started reading this (his debut novel) to be published later in 2025, his second poetry collection “Rapture’s Road” was longlisted for the prestigious Dylan Thomas Prize for writers under age 39. From what I understand his work is well known for its beautiful writing and for its thematic mingling of queer love with nature writing.

Thematically that is exactly what is covered in this book, and we know we are in the hands of a writer of beautiful sentences from the very opening paragraph of the book – one which also sets up the mind state of our narrator James (a librarian, living in the South of England) in 2022 as, shortly after the break up of his marriage (“my husband said that I could love him but not desire him”) he finds his mind turning back to a Summer in 2002 when he was sixteen and a putative relationship with a boy Luke, that was not just formative but whose memories (in his own words) even decades later derailed him and undid his life with his husband.

And in 2022, as he is searching rather obsessively on line for details of his home village (Thornmere in North England), he realises that the farmhouse where he first met Luke is for sale – and is drawn back to the village to try and somehow return to that Summer.

And in his thoughts and memories when he is there he does, and we travel with him as most of the rest of the novel is set in Thornmere in the Summer of 2002 – a village once some 200 years earlier the intersection of factories, industry, canals and railway – now little more than a time-frozen settlement hidden on a slip road off a motorway; again a beautifully crafted opening paragraph to the 2002 section reassuring us of the author’s literary gifts to conjure place as well as person.

James has come out both to his parents and school friends – something accepted but not really condoned (and not least in a family and village who have made a virtue if not almost life choice of both conservatism and of not standing out). James yearns to leave the village for the wider world, but is still at school and his hard-up parents (having also to cope with his rather fragile younger brother who suffers from unexplained fits) is dragooned into a milk round – where, on a village farm, he encounters Luke, the wayward nephew of the farmer.

Luke we find out over time has a mother who has remarried and moved to France and a father in jail – Luke himself perhaps inevitably has a reputation as a trouble maker himself (the apple does not fall far from the tree is the consensus) one he seems happy to live up to with a charismatic, impulsive almost cocky attitude to life, although as James and he get closer his occasional vulnerability becomes clearer to James as does the fact that precisely what James wants to escape (a stable, conservative family set up) is exactly what Luke desperately misses.

Much of the rest of the book maps out the ups and downs of their developing but often agonising friendship and James’s desperate yearning for it to become something more – all embedded in some beautiful nature writing, and some wonderfully observed writing on James dynamics with his family (particularly his mother, their fierce love making James’s increasing desire for independence painful to both).

Really there is so much to like in this book: at the sentence level (for example I loved how James described his 2002 dilemma of feeling unsure both of his parent’s acceptance of him and of Luke’s real feelings, saying it was “as though I lived in this hyphen now, at home in neither place, and wanted nowhere”; at the paragraph level (see the examples above); and in terms of the overall flow of the novel right up to the ending two sections (first of all in 2022 as James ends his return to Thornmere and then our return to 2002 as we see the end of the Summer and Luke’s visit to the village.

And all of this is played out against so more family drama and some closing paragraphs which both thematically mirror and in quality match the opening of the novel.

I had though perhaps two reservations with the novel which prevent me giving it the five stars I thought were inevitable from its opening salvos.

The first is that a word which springs to mind (and I have seen in other reviews) is its “timeless” portrayal of the English countryside, but the novel is timed (to early 21st Century) and yet to me seems to have been set (with the complete absence of mobile phones or computers and with a village milk round) perhaps a decade or more earlier. I am conscious that our first description of Thornmere describes it precisely as out of time, but this seemed to give the novel a lack of fidelity – although the 1990s born author grew up in Warrington so I may well be wrong, but it slightly bought me out of an immersive novel. Similarly I was unconvinced by the novel’s absolutely central conceit, that a still nascent relationship when sixteen would have such life long repercussions even overshadowing James’s wedding day (again though the author may be writing from experience).

So overall this is in many ways a brilliant book – some of the best writing I suspect I will read this year and one I would heartily recommend, just one that did not entirely convince me on a narrative rather than literary/poetic level.

But nevertheless one I would strongly recommend reading – if only to get ahead of the acclaim and prize listings that will surely and deservedly follow.

"Love confused me, bewildered me, tore me apart, but not because it was not love, but because I thought it was fake, some unreal version that did not accord with the love I had dreamt alone"

Open Heaven is a beautiful that truly digs deep into the first love and emotions of a teenager=James. After a twenty year gap he returns to the area he grew up in and which had a profound effect upon his future life.

James lives in a quiet village community; trying to define his path in the world and his own identity - he is gay and open. Felling isolated and having no true friends, he lives a solitary existence beyond the classroom with his parents and young brother Eddie who suffers from seizures. Upon taking up a part time job helping the milkman, he fantasises about meeting men and chances upon encountering Luke- a young man who staying on a farm with relatives . Initially appearing distant and alien to James, Luke holds a deep attraction and fascination.

This is such a tender tory set over one year and the friendship that builds between the two boys- the emotions felt by James are truly raw and palpable and should connect with all readers who have endured the 'eternal turmoil' and yearning of a first love. The second guessing; the power of the imagination; the loneliness of not being able to express or understand feelings and the utter solitariness felt by James is incredibly moving. He is also torn between familial duty - especially towards his young brother- and its 'suffocation" and the need to be free. The interplay between the two characters is pitch perfect.

Seán Hewitt has created a compassionate and at times raw coming of age story- nuanced; laden with beautiful prose and nostalgic.

This is a book for YA readership and adults alike - an eternal tale in which all readers should recognise elements of themselves as they navigate/ed the exploration of love and identity

A beautiful debut and highly recommended

I loved this book! I was already a fan of Sean Hewitt's poetry but think that novels by poets can sometimes be a bit clunky. However, Open, Heaven is so well-written - full of lush descriptions of the countryside but through the lens of nostalgia, a narrator looking into the past after a break up with his husband, and a sweeping and intense coming-of-age story. It may be looser on plot, but I was completely transported back to that age. I think the April pub date for this is perfect as it will be a gorgeous spring read. I hope he is writing another novel!

Open, Heaven is a coming of age novel about one boy in the countryside meeting another and over the course of the year dealing with his feelings. James lives in a village in the countryside with his parents and younger brother. When he starts a milk round, he meets Luke, a charismatic boy with a bad reputation who has come to stay on his aunt and uncle's farm. As loner James is drawn to Luke, he learns about love and what the freedom of being almost an adult really means.

This is a novel that explores queer coming of age and the frustrations of feeling different to everyone else, as well as different kinds of friendship and love. It is tender and lyrical, but also easy to read, capturing the confusion of not knowing the same cues as everyone else because you're not part of the straight world. There's a slight framing device of a more present day narrative, but that is just a few scenes showing how James still longs for something lost, something he never had, rather than a separate story.

Both a beautifully tender queer coming of age novel, and a subtle piece of nature writing on the northern countryside, this books is like Seán Hewitt's poetry has come to life. Hewitt possesses the ability to make you flinch with his writing; there are flashes of eeriness and shocking inner thoughts, but mostly the prose is so stunning and familiar I had to stop and take a breath when reading. The most truthful novel about love, young love, unrequited love or queer love that I have read in a long time.

Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt is a coming of age novel that captures the angst of struggling with love, sexuality, loneliness, desire, growing up.