Monday 26th May 2025, 6:30 pm

Storysmith, 236 North Street, Bristol, BS3 1JD

We are absolutely buzzed to be hosting a conversation with two phenomenal debut novelists – Michael Amherst and Seán Hewitt will be joining us in the shop to discuss their equally delectable and soon-to-be omni-acclaimed books The Boyhood of Cain and Open, Heaven.

There is such a wealth of shared and complimentary ideas bursting from these novels, and we can’t wait to discover from both authors where those ideas meet. Michael and Seán will be in conversation with Siúbhan O’Donnell.
Tickets include a glass of wine. Pre-order your copy of The Boyhood of Cain or Open, Heaven, or BOTH books together (rrp £16.99 each) for a special discounted price with your ticket, then collect on the night!

About Michael Amherst
Michael Amherst’s debut novel, The Boyhood of Cain, will be published in February 2025 by Faber in the UK and Riverhead in the US.

His short fiction has been longlisted for the BBC National Short Story Prize and shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, among others. Meanwhile, his book-length essay, Go the Way Your Blood Beats, a meditation on truth and desire, won the 2019 Stonewall Israel Fishman Award for Nonfiction (sponsored by the American Library Association).

He is also the winner of the 2020 Hubert Butler Essay Prize and was shortlisted for the 2021 Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts. His essay, ‘Does a Silhouette Have a Shadow?’, examining the relationship between mind and body through the lens of chronic illness, is published in anthology On Bodies. His work has also been published in the Guardian, New Statesman, the Spectator, The White Review and Contrappasso magazine.

Previously he has worked for Just Detention International, a health and human rights organisation that seeks to end sexual abuse in all forms of detention. He served as a commissioner on the Howard League’s Commission on sex in prisons – the first of its kind in the UK – which reported in 2015.

(picture credit: Kat Green)

About The Boyhood Of Cain

‘A powerful, searing tale.’ André Aciman
‘I read this book with my heart in my mouth and could not put it down.’ Mary Costello
‘Amherst has created a young protagonist of extraordinary depth and complexity.’ Nathan Filer
‘A beautiful coming-of-age story.’ Michael Magee

Danny’s family live in a large house close to the school where his father is headmaster. At school, his father’s importance gives Danny certain privileges, but it also sets him apart from his classmates. When a new boy Philip, for whom everything seems easy, arrives, he surprises Danny by wanting to be friends. So when he and Philip are invited to work after school with inspiring, artistic teacher Mr. Miller, Danny believes he has found somewhere he can shine.

Until Danny’s world tilts: his father loses his job, and their house. And then Danny finds himself shut out from Mr. Miller and Philip’s world too. Desperate to make amends, he keeps trying to find a way back in, but will Danny’s efforts send things spinning beyond everyone’s control?

About Seán Hewitt
Seán Hewitt is a poet, memoirist, novelist and literary critic.

His debut collection of poetry, Tongues of Fire, won The Laurel Prize in 2021, and was shortlisted for The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize, and a Dalkey Literary Award. In 2020, he was chosen by The Sunday Times as one of their “30 under 30” artists in Ireland.​

His book J.M. Synge: Nature, Politics, Modernism was published with Oxford University Press (2021).

His memoir, All Down Darkness Wide, was published by Jonathan Cape in the UK and Penguin Press in the USA (2022). It was shortlisted for Biography of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards, for the Foyles Book of the Year in non-fiction, for the RSL Ondaatje Prize, the Polari Prize, the Michel Déon Prize, and for a LAMBDA award. He won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2022.

300,000 Kisses: Tales of Queer Love from the Ancient World, illustrated by Luke Edward Hall, was published in 2023. A second collection of poetry, Rapture’s Road, was published in 2024. His work has been translated into 9 languages.​

His debut novel, Open, Heaven, is forthcoming in Spring 2025.​

He is Assistant Professor in Literary Practice at Trinity College Dublin, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

(picture credit: Stuart Simpson / Penguin Random House)

About Open, Heaven


Set in the English countryside, Open, Heaven unfolds over the course of one year as two teenage boys meet and transform each other’s lives.

* A Guardian, Irish Times and BBC Book for 2025 *

‘Hewitt writes with such tenderness and grace’ ANNE ENRIGHT

‘A gorgeous ache of a novel’ COLIN WALSH

On the cusp of adulthood, James dreams of another life far away from his small village. As he contends with the expectations of his family, his burgeoning desire – an ache for autonomy, tenderness and sex – threatens to unravel his shy exterior.

Then he meets Luke. Unkempt and handsome, charismatic and impulsive, he has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle on a nearby farm. Luke comes with a reputation for danger, but underneath his bravado lie anxieties and hopes of his own.

With the passing seasons, the two teenagers grow closer and the bond that emerges between them transforms their lives. James falls deeply for Luke, yet he is never sure of Luke’s true feelings. And as the end of summer nears, he has a choice to make – will he risk everything for the possibility of love?

‘A beautiful novel about how a first love can shape a whole life’ HELEN MACDONALD

‘Open, Heaven does what the very best coming-of-age stories do’ MICHAEL MAGEE

‘God’s Own Country meets Heartstopper… People will love it’ BRANDON TAYLOR

‘Seán Hewitt is the real deal’ BENJAMIN MYERS

‘It’s a novel about us’ KAVEH AKBAR

Entry requirements: no age restrictions — Read more — Read less