The Body in the Clouds

by Ashley Hay

What if you looked up at just the right moment and saw - out of the corner of your eye - something unexpected? What if it was something so marvellous, so extraordinary, that it transformed time and space forever?
The Body in the Clouds tells the story of one extraordinary moment - a man falling from the sky, and surviving - and of three men who see it, in different ways and different times, as they stand on the same piece of land. An astronomer in the late 1700s, a bridgeworker in the 1930s, an expatriate banker returning home in the early 21st century: all three are transformed by one magical event. All are searching for the same thing: how to understand what it means to call a place home, and how to be able to tell when you get there.
The Body in the Clouds is a luminous novel about the power of story: the stories that define who and where we are. And the stories we tell - and have told, and will tell - for the people we love.
(From Publisher).

Ashley Hay is the author of four books of non-fiction - The Secret: The strange marriage of Annabella Milbanke and Lord Byron and Gum: The story of eucalypts and their champions, and Herbarium and Museum with the visual artist Robyn Stacey. A former literary editor of The Bulletin, her essays and short stories have also appeared in anthologies and journals including Brothers and Sisters, The Monthly, Heat and The Griffith Review. The Body in the Clouds is her first novel and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize 'Best First Book' (South-East Asia and Pacific region) and the NSW Premier's Literary Awards.

A man falls from the sky and survives. This extraordinary moment is seen by three men in different ways and different times, transforming them. A 1700s astronomer, a 1930s bridge worker and a 21st century ex-patriot banker are all searching for an understanding of home and how to tell when you get there. This beautifully written novel evokes a great sense of wonder and place.