It’s very horny and beautiful and I just ripped through it.
— Phoebe Bridgers, Vogue
Mira is a loner, a drop out, an obsessive fascinated by the concept of sleaze. She wants two things: to move to Alaska and find the tattooed fisherman that’s the object of her desire. Her single-mindedness takes her to the remote Kodiak Archipelago, where she finds work at a homestead-turned-tourist-lodge offering a carousel of meticulously scripted Alaskan experiences.
But the lodge is failing and, as life on Lavender Island becomes increasingly claustrophobic and strange, Mira’s plans for her future become more elaborate and perverse.
Part meditation on unhinged longing, part biting commentary on eco-tourism and the mythology of the American West, and part yearning portrayal of people at the end of their tether, The Seaplane on Final Approach is wholly original, “a perfect blend of deep, dark humor, sadness, and (of course), adolescent horniness.” (LitHub)
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PRAISE
“Rebecca Rukeyser weaves a dreamlike spell — “Twin Peaks” by way of “Northern Exposure.” Give it to someone who wants something weird, in the best way.”
— Los Angeles Times
“Rukeyser’s assured, elegant prose brings colour and outline to the great outdoors…Her debut novel is part adventure story, party coming of age tale, about a woman on the cusp of adulthood, fully of inchoate longing.”
—Irish Times
“Disreputably funny…Rebecca Rukeyser’s debut is about how desire ruins everything. When the end comes, it’s catastrophic as well as lengthy, gruesome fun.”
—The Telegraph
“[A] deftly juggled mix of mercilessly sharp character judgment and gentle compassion for each person’s failings…One for readers who enjoy the current crop of distinctly twisted coming of age tales.”
—The Times
“The Seaplane on Final Approach is a jaunty, perfectly paced and exceptionally well-written coming-of-age story. It is slyly funny, with just the right touch of darkness to take the edge off.”
– The TLS
“Fans of the sensuous, droll obscenity of Melissa Broder’s The Pisces, exhilarating transgressiveness of Alissa Nutting’s Tampa, uncanny sense of unease in Ottessa Moshfegh’s Eileen, and claustrophobic domesticity of Lucia Berlin’s A Manual for Cleaning Women will find a lot to love in Rebecca Rukeyser’s debut novel.”
—Apartment Therapy
“I didn’t realize how much I needed this lusty, funny, heartbreaking book until I devoured it in a single sitting. […] Sexy and dark and strange and absolutely perfect.”
—Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House and Her Body & Other Parties
“An age-old story—puppy love meets jaded lust to dance their death spiral inside a young woman’s head—told with the shameless authenticity of 2022. I ate it up.”
—Nell Zink, author of Doxology
“Brilliant and possibly the horniest thing I’ve ever read. It’s like if Muriel Spark got seasick and dropped molly instead of dramamine.”
—Tony Tulathimutte, author of Private Citizens
“Erotic possibility and inevitable ruin animate the Alaskan wilderness in this astounding debut. Original and adventurous, horny and hilarious—it’s everything I want from a book.”
—Rachel Yoder, author of Nightbitch
