If the Sky Falls is the debut short-story collection from award-winning fiction writer Nicholas Montemarano. These eleven stories show why Jayne Anne Phillips has called Montemarano "e;an American stylist capable of redeeming our darkest dreams."e;Redemption in these intense and sometimes violent stories is found in the lyrical prose, in the act of storytelling itself. A young man tries to rescue his sister from her abusive lover, and in the process must revisit his own family's violent history ("e;Note to Future Self"e;); a home healthcare worker pops pills and takes two men with cerebral palsy to a strip club ("e;The Usual Human Disabilities"e;); a man has a breakdown years after witnessing a brutal murder and doing nothing to help the victim ("e;The Other Man"e;). In "e;The November Fifteen,"e; a man is taken from his home and tortured, though he has no idea why; when he returns home he finds a different kind of torture awaiting him.Two of the stories -- "e;Shift"e; and the Pushcart Prize--winning "e;The Worst Degree of Unforgivable"e; -- are stylistic tours de force. But style in this collection is always at the service of story. Montemarano's fiction maintains that rare balance between traditional storytelling and experimentation: his work is innovative without being flashy, sincere without being sentimental. In an age of hype, If the Sky Falls truly is the real thing -- an original and important achievement in the short-story form.