In the Sky

by Octave Mirbeau
translated by Ann Sterzinger

Written at the dawn of modernism, In the Sky is Octave Mirbeau’s intense and deeply psychological portrait of artistic obsession. First serialized in the Paris newspaper L’Echo de Paris between 1892 and 1893, the novel follows a reclusive painter whose uncompromising search for artistic perfection slowly drives him toward ruin.

In the Sky remained unavailable in book form for nearly a century before scholars Jean-François Nivet and Pierre Michel reconstructed and published the surviving text in 1989. Today, the novella stands as a striking early exploration of themes that would come to define twentieth-century literature: alienation, aesthetic extremity, and the destructive demands of genius.

This is the first English translation of Mirbeau’s forgotten masterpiece, rendered by the American novelist Ann Sterzinger with assistance from Mirbeau scholars Robert Ziegler and Claire Nettleton.

Ann Sterzinger is the author of NVSQVAM, Girl Detectives, and numerous other books. Follow her writing on Substack and follow her on X @VraieSterzinger.