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Skylighting
Skylighting
A novel of grief, drift, and the slow return to feeling
When he lost his wife, he lost himself too.
Grief has set him adrift buoyed only by fragments of memory and the wreckage of a life he no longer recognizes. He has traded New York City for a low-rent stretch of Florida coastline, and for a year he stops steering. He lets chance decide where he goes, who he meets, what happens next. Longing feels like betrayal. Love feels like forgetting. So he chooses neither.
But drift has its own gravity. In the glare of Florida sun and the strange company of strangers, something in him starts to loosen, not healing, exactly, but the first faint outline of it.
Skylighting is a lyrical, unflinching meditation on loss, identity, and the reluctant pull toward renewal, a Reading Group Choices selection praised for its lucid prose and its unsentimental honesty about what grief actually does to a life.
Praise for Skylighting
"a portrait of grief and disconnection that sheds light on life's most important questions" Kelly Magee, author of A Guide to Strange Places
"an astute, surprising journey" Erica Wright, author of Hollow Bones
"should be widely read and loudly admired" John Mauk, author of Field Notes for the Earthbound
A novel of grief, drift, and the slow return to feeling
When he lost his wife, he lost himself too.
Grief has set him adrift buoyed only by fragments of memory and the wreckage of a life he no longer recognizes. He has traded New York City for a low-rent stretch of Florida coastline, and for a year he stops steering. He lets chance decide where he goes, who he meets, what happens next. Longing feels like betrayal. Love feels like forgetting. So he chooses neither.
But drift has its own gravity. In the glare of Florida sun and the strange company of strangers, something in him starts to loosen, not healing, exactly, but the first faint outline of it.
Skylighting is a lyrical, unflinching meditation on loss, identity, and the reluctant pull toward renewal, a Reading Group Choices selection praised for its lucid prose and its unsentimental honesty about what grief actually does to a life.
Praise for Skylighting
"a portrait of grief and disconnection that sheds light on life's most important questions" Kelly Magee, author of A Guide to Strange Places
"an astute, surprising journey" Erica Wright, author of Hollow Bones
"should be widely read and loudly admired" John Mauk, author of Field Notes for the Earthbound
178 pages, Paperback
Published December 9, 2025
About the author
Charles Hansmann
2 booksCharles Hansmann is the award-winning author of the novel Skylighting (Regal House Publishing, 2025) and five poetry chapbooks. His fiction and poetry have appeared internationally in literary magazines and anthologies, including The Best Small Fictions, and his honors include the Apprentice House Award, the Clockwise Award, and the Willet Press Poetry Prize.
Raised on a farm outside Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Hansmann began publishing while still an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh, where he studied English and philosophy and served on the editorial staff of the Wisconsin Review. Before earning a J.D. and practicing law in New York City and Long Island, he worked as a cook, waiter, laborer, truck driver, and gandy dancer across California, Florida, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Hawaii, a restlessness that still runs through his fiction.
He lives in Sarasota, Florida, with his wife, Eileen Kennedy.
Raised on a farm outside Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Hansmann began publishing while still an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh, where he studied English and philosophy and served on the editorial staff of the Wisconsin Review. Before earning a J.D. and practicing law in New York City and Long Island, he worked as a cook, waiter, laborer, truck driver, and gandy dancer across California, Florida, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Hawaii, a restlessness that still runs through his fiction.
He lives in Sarasota, Florida, with his wife, Eileen Kennedy.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
August 19, 2026
Skylighting is a poignant and beautifully layered story about grief, loneliness, unexpected connection, and the difficult journey toward emotional renewal.
Charles Hansmann centers the novel on Nick Nacht, a man struggling to find his footing after the death of his wife. Rather than presenting grief as a straightforward path from sorrow to recovery, the story allows Nick’s healing to unfold through a series of unpredictable encounters with strangers, acquaintances, and people carrying their own hidden wounds.
What makes the novel particularly compelling is the variety of lives Nick encounters. An impulsive teenage girl, a married woman with a concealed agenda, a neighbor’s pet bird, a troubled young poet, and a woman translating indigenous texts each introduce a different perspective into Nick’s increasingly complicated emotional landscape. These seemingly disparate encounters gradually become part of a larger meditation on connection, abandonment, and the ways people can unexpectedly influence one another.
The movement between Florida and the Mediterranean also gives Skylighting a strong sense of atmosphere. The changing landscapes mirror Nick’s internal journey, creating a contrast between the physical beauty surrounding him and the grief he continues to carry within.
Hansmann’s lyrical prose and relatively compact 178-page structure appear particularly well suited to the novel’s intimate subject matter. Rather than relying on melodrama, the story seems to find its emotional power in observation, conversation, solitude, and small moments of human connection.
At its heart, Skylighting asks an important question: How does someone begin living again after losing the person who once made life feel complete?
Its answer is neither simple nor sentimental. Healing comes gradually, through encounters that may initially seem accidental and through the realization that even people we barely know can illuminate parts of ourselves we had forgotten.
For readers drawn to literary fiction, emotionally complex characters, stories of bereavement, and narratives about finding hope in unexpected places, Skylighting offers an intimate exploration of what it means to move through sorrow without allowing sorrow to become the entirety of one’s life.
Charles Hansmann centers the novel on Nick Nacht, a man struggling to find his footing after the death of his wife. Rather than presenting grief as a straightforward path from sorrow to recovery, the story allows Nick’s healing to unfold through a series of unpredictable encounters with strangers, acquaintances, and people carrying their own hidden wounds.
What makes the novel particularly compelling is the variety of lives Nick encounters. An impulsive teenage girl, a married woman with a concealed agenda, a neighbor’s pet bird, a troubled young poet, and a woman translating indigenous texts each introduce a different perspective into Nick’s increasingly complicated emotional landscape. These seemingly disparate encounters gradually become part of a larger meditation on connection, abandonment, and the ways people can unexpectedly influence one another.
The movement between Florida and the Mediterranean also gives Skylighting a strong sense of atmosphere. The changing landscapes mirror Nick’s internal journey, creating a contrast between the physical beauty surrounding him and the grief he continues to carry within.
Hansmann’s lyrical prose and relatively compact 178-page structure appear particularly well suited to the novel’s intimate subject matter. Rather than relying on melodrama, the story seems to find its emotional power in observation, conversation, solitude, and small moments of human connection.
At its heart, Skylighting asks an important question: How does someone begin living again after losing the person who once made life feel complete?
Its answer is neither simple nor sentimental. Healing comes gradually, through encounters that may initially seem accidental and through the realization that even people we barely know can illuminate parts of ourselves we had forgotten.
For readers drawn to literary fiction, emotionally complex characters, stories of bereavement, and narratives about finding hope in unexpected places, Skylighting offers an intimate exploration of what it means to move through sorrow without allowing sorrow to become the entirety of one’s life.
August 11, 2026
Skylighting is a poignant and atmospheric exploration of grief, loneliness, unexpected human connection, and the difficult journey toward emotional renewal.
Following the death of his wife, Nick Nacht finds himself navigating an unfamiliar existence, searching for some way to understand his loss while moving through places and encounters that continually challenge his sense of isolation. His journey from Florida to the Mediterranean provides a vivid backdrop for a deeply personal story about what it means to begin rebuilding a life after profound loss.
One of the novel's strengths is the variety of people Nick encounters along the way. From an impulsive teenager and a woman carrying a hidden agenda to a young poet struggling with her own difficulties and a woman who translates Indigenous texts, each encounter adds another perspective to Nick's evolving understanding of grief and human connection.
The novel's emphasis on unexpected relationships is particularly compelling. Nick does not find renewal through one simple revelation; instead, his healing emerges gradually through a collection of fleeting and meaningful connections, moments of solitude, and experiences that force him to confront feelings of loss and abandonment.
The lyrical quality of the prose appears well suited to the reflective nature of the story, allowing the emotional landscape to remain at the forefront while the changing settings provide a sense of movement and possibility.
Readers who enjoy literary fiction, character-driven stories, reflective narratives about grief, travel-infused fiction, and emotionally nuanced explorations of healing will find Skylighting an absorbing read.
A thoughtful and atmospheric novel about discovering that even after profound loss, unexpected connections can illuminate a path toward renewal and hope.
Following the death of his wife, Nick Nacht finds himself navigating an unfamiliar existence, searching for some way to understand his loss while moving through places and encounters that continually challenge his sense of isolation. His journey from Florida to the Mediterranean provides a vivid backdrop for a deeply personal story about what it means to begin rebuilding a life after profound loss.
One of the novel's strengths is the variety of people Nick encounters along the way. From an impulsive teenager and a woman carrying a hidden agenda to a young poet struggling with her own difficulties and a woman who translates Indigenous texts, each encounter adds another perspective to Nick's evolving understanding of grief and human connection.
The novel's emphasis on unexpected relationships is particularly compelling. Nick does not find renewal through one simple revelation; instead, his healing emerges gradually through a collection of fleeting and meaningful connections, moments of solitude, and experiences that force him to confront feelings of loss and abandonment.
The lyrical quality of the prose appears well suited to the reflective nature of the story, allowing the emotional landscape to remain at the forefront while the changing settings provide a sense of movement and possibility.
Readers who enjoy literary fiction, character-driven stories, reflective narratives about grief, travel-infused fiction, and emotionally nuanced explorations of healing will find Skylighting an absorbing read.
A thoughtful and atmospheric novel about discovering that even after profound loss, unexpected connections can illuminate a path toward renewal and hope.
December 10, 2025
The poetry of this book, both visually and linguistically–and also its honest portrayal of the day-to-day life and reflections of its troubled protagonist, Nick Nacht–reminded me of the best of indie films. The novel, which begins shortly after Nick has suffered a stunning loss, grounds us deeply in his perspective and, scene by scene, shows us how he grapples with his evolving feelings about that loss, and about a trauma rooted in his childhood. Throughout, the writing is entrancing and insightful.
The loss at the start of the novel sends Nick on what seems, at first, to be an aimless journey, one in which he feels like only an observer, even within his own self. But during his travels, Nick is open to every form of experience, and to insights from various people he meets along the way. With haunting descriptions, Hansmann brings these scenes to life, and he shows us how the experience ultimately brings Nick to new understandings about his troubled past and about what his future, shaped by both love and loss, might look like. Skylighting artfully melds the perceptiveness of a philosophical meditation with poetic lyricism. It’s a deeply felt, revelatory novel.
The loss at the start of the novel sends Nick on what seems, at first, to be an aimless journey, one in which he feels like only an observer, even within his own self. But during his travels, Nick is open to every form of experience, and to insights from various people he meets along the way. With haunting descriptions, Hansmann brings these scenes to life, and he shows us how the experience ultimately brings Nick to new understandings about his troubled past and about what his future, shaped by both love and loss, might look like. Skylighting artfully melds the perceptiveness of a philosophical meditation with poetic lyricism. It’s a deeply felt, revelatory novel.
October 14, 2026
One of the most interesting aspects of Skylighting is its premise of a man who stops steering his own life. Rather than immediately searching for answers or constructing a plan for recovery, he allows chance to determine his movements and encounters. That passivity is not simply an absence of action; it becomes an expression of emotional exhaustion.
This approach creates room for a quieter kind of narrative tension. When a character has lost the desire to direct his own future, even small changes in his surroundings or relationships can take on significance. The Florida coastline provides an evocative setting for this suspended existence, contrasting the brightness of the landscape with the uncertainty of the protagonist's inner life.
The premise suggests a novel more interested in emotional shifts than dramatic victories. That distinction will appeal to readers who appreciate fiction that trusts subtle development and allows its central questions to remain complicated. The idea that life can begin to move again before a person fully understands why is one of the book's strongest conceptual attractions.
This approach creates room for a quieter kind of narrative tension. When a character has lost the desire to direct his own future, even small changes in his surroundings or relationships can take on significance. The Florida coastline provides an evocative setting for this suspended existence, contrasting the brightness of the landscape with the uncertainty of the protagonist's inner life.
The premise suggests a novel more interested in emotional shifts than dramatic victories. That distinction will appeal to readers who appreciate fiction that trusts subtle development and allows its central questions to remain complicated. The idea that life can begin to move again before a person fully understands why is one of the book's strongest conceptual attractions.
October 14, 2026
In Skylighting, Florida is more than a geographical destination. The sunlit coastline and unfamiliar surroundings provide an atmospheric counterpoint to the protagonist's private experience of grief. The contrast between a bright external world and an emotionally unsettled inner life gives the premise much of its appeal.
The move away from New York City is especially suggestive. Leaving a familiar environment can create physical distance from painful memories, but distance alone cannot restore a sense of belonging. The protagonist's year of drifting raises an intriguing question: can a new place help someone rediscover himself, or must he first learn to inhabit his own life again?
I find this relationship between place and emotional state one of the most promising dimensions of the novel. The coastline offers the possibility of openness without guaranteeing peace. Likewise, the presence of strangers creates opportunities for connection without automatically resolving loneliness. For readers drawn to atmospheric literary fiction, Skylighting offers a premise in which landscape and psychology can illuminate one another.
The move away from New York City is especially suggestive. Leaving a familiar environment can create physical distance from painful memories, but distance alone cannot restore a sense of belonging. The protagonist's year of drifting raises an intriguing question: can a new place help someone rediscover himself, or must he first learn to inhabit his own life again?
I find this relationship between place and emotional state one of the most promising dimensions of the novel. The coastline offers the possibility of openness without guaranteeing peace. Likewise, the presence of strangers creates opportunities for connection without automatically resolving loneliness. For readers drawn to atmospheric literary fiction, Skylighting offers a premise in which landscape and psychology can illuminate one another.
October 14, 2026
The most affecting tension in Skylighting may be the relationship between grief and the possibility of future love. After losing his wife, the protagonist experiences longing as a form of betrayal and love as a threat to memory. That conflict captures a difficult emotional dilemma: when someone has been central to your life, can opening yourself to another experience feel like diminishing what came before?
This is a richer starting point than simply asking whether a grieving person will find love again. It considers the meaning that person attaches to moving forward. The obstacle is not necessarily the absence of another relationship, but the fear that renewed happiness might invalidate the depth of the original loss.
The premise invites compassion without requiring the reader to treat grief as a condition with a predictable ending. Renewal becomes possible not because the past disappears, but because the protagonist may gradually develop a different relationship with it. Readers who appreciate emotionally complex fiction about devotion, memory, and the difficult permission to live again may find this aspect especially compelling.
This is a richer starting point than simply asking whether a grieving person will find love again. It considers the meaning that person attaches to moving forward. The obstacle is not necessarily the absence of another relationship, but the fear that renewed happiness might invalidate the depth of the original loss.
The premise invites compassion without requiring the reader to treat grief as a condition with a predictable ending. Renewal becomes possible not because the past disappears, but because the protagonist may gradually develop a different relationship with it. Readers who appreciate emotionally complex fiction about devotion, memory, and the difficult permission to live again may find this aspect especially compelling.
October 14, 2026
The description of Skylighting presents memory as something that keeps the protagonist afloat while also reminding him of the life he can no longer recover. This dual role makes memory an especially compelling thematic foundation for the novel. It can preserve intimacy, but it can also make the present feel like an inferior substitute for what has been lost.
Rather than treating remembrance as something the protagonist must overcome, the premise suggests a more nuanced possibility: he must learn to live with the past without allowing it to determine every aspect of his future. That distinction matters because the choice is not necessarily between remembering and forgetting. It may be between being imprisoned by memory and finding a way to carry it forward.
The book's emphasis on reluctant renewal gives this tension emotional weight. Healing, as presented in the description, is neither immediate nor absolute. It begins with small changes in how the protagonist encounters life. For readers who value introspective fiction, this exploration of memory's complicated influence offers a meaningful reason to consider the novel.
Rather than treating remembrance as something the protagonist must overcome, the premise suggests a more nuanced possibility: he must learn to live with the past without allowing it to determine every aspect of his future. That distinction matters because the choice is not necessarily between remembering and forgetting. It may be between being imprisoned by memory and finding a way to carry it forward.
The book's emphasis on reluctant renewal gives this tension emotional weight. Healing, as presented in the description, is neither immediate nor absolute. It begins with small changes in how the protagonist encounters life. For readers who value introspective fiction, this exploration of memory's complicated influence offers a meaningful reason to consider the novel.
October 14, 2026
Skylighting explores an aspect of grief that deserves more attention: the loss of identity that can follow the death of someone who has shaped the meaning of everyday life. The protagonist's loss is not confined to missing his wife; it extends into his relationship with himself and his ability to imagine a future.
What makes the premise compelling is the decision to portray grief as a state of disorientation rather than a problem that can be solved through a neat sequence of emotional milestones. His move from New York City to Florida reflects more than a change of scenery. It suggests an attempt to exist somewhere his former life cannot constantly dictate who he should be.
The novel's emphasis on gradual change also offers an appealing alternative to conventional stories of recovery. The suggestion that a person can begin moving forward without feeling entirely healed is emotionally credible and deeply human. For readers interested in literary fiction that examines how loss alters identity, Skylighting presents a thoughtful and potentially resonant exploration.
What makes the premise compelling is the decision to portray grief as a state of disorientation rather than a problem that can be solved through a neat sequence of emotional milestones. His move from New York City to Florida reflects more than a change of scenery. It suggests an attempt to exist somewhere his former life cannot constantly dictate who he should be.
The novel's emphasis on gradual change also offers an appealing alternative to conventional stories of recovery. The suggestion that a person can begin moving forward without feeling entirely healed is emotionally credible and deeply human. For readers interested in literary fiction that examines how loss alters identity, Skylighting presents a thoughtful and potentially resonant exploration.
September 5, 2026
Skylighting is a quietly powerful novel about what happens when grief refuses to stay in the past. Charles Hansmann takes Nick Nacht through a series of encounters that initially feel incidental, then gradually reveal themselves as pieces of a much larger emotional puzzle. The prose is lean, lyrical, and observant, allowing silence and small human moments to carry enormous weight. What stayed with me most was the novel’s refusal to offer easy answers about loss. Instead, it shows healing as something messy, unexpected, and deeply human. A thoughtful, beautifully constructed story that rewards close attention.
September 5, 2026
What makes Skylighting stand out is its cast of unforgettable people and the strange, compelling ways their lives intersect with Nick’s. From an impulsive teenager to a woman carrying a secret agenda, a poet fighting her own battles, and a translator immersed in indigenous texts, every encounter adds another layer to Nick’s fractured world. Hansmann keeps the story moving with crisp prose and an understated sense of tension. Just when you think you understand where the novel is going, another character or revelation shifts the emotional landscape. It’s an unusual, intelligent story about loneliness, connection, and the possibility of beginning again.
September 5, 2026
There is something remarkably honest about Skylighting. Nick is grieving, but this isn't simply a story about mourning a wife it is about confronting the emptiness that loss leaves behind and discovering what might fill it. The movement between Florida and the Mediterranean gives the novel a wonderfully expansive backdrop, but the real journey happens inside Nick. Hansmann writes with restraint, never forcing emotion where a quiet observation will do more. The result is a novel that feels intimate without becoming sentimental. By the end, the idea of renewal feels earned rather than convenient. A moving and distinctive read with an emotional afterglow
January 5, 2026
This is a first novel by a friend. The voice is good and the vocabulary impressive. The plot leaves me with many unanswered questions (kind of like real life). The protagonist is working through the loss of his wife (his actions contributed to her death) as well as issues of abandonment by his mother and the remote bitterness of his father. A lot to process in a short book. There are poetic passages that are lovely and good description of settings and people. The open-ended finale rings true and gives a glimpse of hope at the main character's peace. Worth a look.
October 9, 2026
Skylighting offers a deeply moving portrait of grief and the quiet ways it can reshape an entire life. What makes the premise compelling is its recognition that loss does not follow a neat path toward recovery. Through a man caught between memory and an uncertain future, Charles Hansmann explores the difficult process of learning to feel again. A thoughtful, introspective novel that lingers beyond the final page.
October 9, 2026
There is something striking about Skylighting and its willingness to sit with discomfort rather than rush toward easy answers. Its exploration of grief, disconnection, and reluctant renewal promises a quieter but deeply affecting reading experience. Hansmann's lyrical approach and unsentimental treatment of loss make this a compelling choice for readers who appreciate literary fiction that asks meaningful questions about being human.
October 9, 2026
There is something striking about Skylighting and its willingness to sit with discomfort rather than rush toward easy answers. Its exploration of grief, disconnection, and reluctant renewal promises a quieter but deeply affecting reading experience. Hansmann's lyrical approach and unsentimental treatment of loss make this a compelling choice for readers who appreciate literary fiction that asks meaningful questions about being human.
October 9, 2026
Losing someone you love can leave you questioning not only the future but also the person you were before the loss. Skylighting captures that unsettling reality through a protagonist struggling to find his footing in an unfamiliar life. Its central themes of longing, memory, and emotional survival give the story considerable depth. This is a novel for readers who appreciate honest portrayals of grief without the comfort of simplistic resolutions.
October 9, 2026
What happens when the life you once understood no longer feels like your own? Skylighting explores this question through a man who abandons familiar surroundings and allows uncertainty to guide him. The premise creates room for a nuanced examination of identity, loneliness, and the possibility of change. Rather than presenting renewal as a sudden transformation, the novel points toward something quieter: the gradual willingness to reengage with life.
October 9, 2026
A thoughtful meditation on grief, loneliness, and the fragile possibility of beginning again. Skylighting stands out for its introspective premise and its refusal to make emotional recovery seem simple. Charles Hansmann offers a literary journey that invites readers to consider how we carry loss while finding our way back to ourselves.
March 31, 2026
This was profound yet confusing at times but very heartfelt prose.
The grief and daily struggles of moving on after losing a loved one are personified completely how you feel as though you are just drifting through life.
The grief and daily struggles of moving on after losing a loved one are personified completely how you feel as though you are just drifting through life.
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August 28, 2026read on a plane ride and wow was this one of my least favorite books ever
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews