THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN HEAVENS

Mark Morganstern

THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN HEAVENS

Mark Morganstern

THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN HEAVENS

And Other Stories

This collection of two novellas and three short stories is concerned with displacement—both physical and emotional. A young immigrant woman with a visionary gift strives for freedom in an unfamiliar new country and from her own patriarchal family. Men of a certain age encounter unpredictable events as they confront mortality and the passing of relationships. A homeless Jamaican chef whose past defies reason gets justice in the present. A hapless real estate agent tangles with foreign gangsters, star-crossed love, and the question, who am I?

Morganstern writes with kindness and humor, and with a freewheeling hallucinatory sensibility. He transports us from culinary delights to mystical visions, seamlessly merging the mundane with the mysterious to uncover something new beneath the everydayness of American life.

This collection of two novellas and three short stories is concerned with displacement—both physical and emotional. A young immigrant woman with a visionary gift strives for freedom in an unfamiliar new country and from her own patriarchal family. Men of a certain age encounter unpredictable events as they confront mortality and the passing of relationships. A homeless Jamaican chef whose past defies reason gets justice in the present. A hapless real estate agent tangles with foreign gangsters, star-crossed love, and the question, who am I?

Morganstern writes with kindness and humor, and with a freewheeling hallucinatory sensibility. He transports us from culinary delights to mystical visions, seamlessly merging the mundane with the mysterious to uncover something new beneath the everydayness of American life.

Reviews

Mark Morganstern's stories give us the best kind of truth, because real life is both difficult and magical. His work will make you smile and it will make you think.
—Mary Gauthier, award winning recording artist

Morganstern's vivid and straightforward voice lets us immerse ourselves thoroughly in these recognizable, slightly tilted realities without a hitch, in the company of characters with vividly drawn inner lives.
—Anne Pyburn Craig, BlueStone Press
Read full review »

Morganstern’s prose is sharp and surprising. He’s able to capture his characters’ humanity with a few revealing descriptions... the book works as a thoughtful, evolving meditation on grief and acceptance.
—Kirkus Reviews

Mark Morganstern's stories give us the best kind of truth, because real life is both difficult and magical. His work will make you smile and it will make you think.
—Mary Gauthier, award winning recording artist

Morganstern's vivid and straightforward voice lets us immerse ourselves thoroughly in these recognizable, slightly tilted realities without a hitch, in the company of characters with vividly drawn inner lives.
—Anne Pyburn Craig, BlueStone Press
Read review »

Morganstern’s prose is sharp and surprising. He’s able to capture his characters’ humanity with a few revealing descriptions... the book works as a thoughtful, evolving meditation on grief and acceptance.
—Kirkus Reviews

About the author

Mark Morganstern left a budding music career behind when he realized he didn't want to play weddings in a cover band. He parlayed a long-term literary interest into an MA in Creative Writing from the City University of New York, subsequently subbing in a high school and booking music acts in his family cafe. These days, he writes, submits, files rejections, gets published. He believes in fiction.

Mark Morganstern
Mark Morganstern

Mark Morganstern left a budding music career behind when he realized he didn't want to play weddings in a cover band. He parlayed a long-term literary interest into an MA in Creative Writing from the City University of New York, subsequently subbing in a high school and booking music acts in his family cafe. These days, he writes, submits, files rejections, gets published. He believes in fiction.

The Author's Choice

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The Complete Stories

by Flannery O'Connor

Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First edition (January 1971)

 

"Her stories are frighteningly real, brilliantly composed, terrifying examples of imagination... crafted perfection."