num_pages: 148
description: Boundless as the Sky is a book of the invisible histories that repose beneath the cities we inhabit and the worlds we try to build out of words. The first of its two parts stories of real and invented cities some ancient some dystopian is a response to Italo Calvinos Invisible Cities. The second part comes together into one narrative taking place in a single cityChicagoon a single day in 1933. It is based closely on a true event the arrival of a roaring armada of goodwill in the form of twenty-four seaplanes flown in a display of fascist power by Mussolinis wingman Italo Balbo to Chicagos Century of Progress Worlds Fair. These two panels of Raffels poetic diptych call out to each other with a mysterious and disquieting harmony and from history and fantasy to the dangers and dark realities of the current moment with startling insight and urgency.Raffel  draws inspiration from Italo Calvinos Invisible Cities and the history of Chicagos 1933 Worlds Fair for this sublime collection. This profile of a city within a city creates a Russian nesting doll of urban tableaux. This is one to savor.Publishers Weekly (starred review)[D]iscerningly refined sharply faceted tales. Raffels imaginative poetic riddling vignettes are spiked with word play and provocative allusions piquantly dystopian fables with a tincture of dark humor about mothers and daughters aging fire water and ecocide collaged with startling variations on myths shards of history and visits to such wryly mysterious places as the vacant City of Exits.Donna Seaman in BooklistDawn Raffel is clearly at the height of her powers. Inventive strange full of brilliance and light rage and love these mysterious histories have everything to do with where we are today.Deb Olin Unferth author of Barn 8In Dawn Raffels wonderful new book fascists fly through history our bodies are not allowed to be our selves and freaks are everywhere. Cities are thought experiments jewel cases and an afternoons carnival. A beautiful collection where the impish comedy of dark fables meets the urbane planning of Calvino and the exquisite miniatures and deft turns of language that are all her own.Eugene Lim author of Search HistoryBoundless as the Sky is so exceptional in imagination form and language that I kept stopping in amazement at each marvel of observation and expression. Raffel is a wonder and we are lucky to have this new book of her fictiondare I say her best yet!Victoria Redel author of Before EverythingRaffel weaves historical details through her fiction some almost as fantastical as the word pictures of the first section. A remarkable piece of writing wonderfully imaginative and inventive.Susan Osborne in A Life in BooksBeautifully written. akin to reading a poetry collection. imaginative and engaging.Jackie Law Never Imitate
language: English
title: Boundless as the Sky
publisher: Sagging Meniscus