Conversation Pieces

Vol. 97 — Bankrupting Sky Banks

by Erik Hofstatter

Read a sample from the book.

The disquiet in our heads has started fires again. God tries to smoke us out. We have red hair because our heads are alight. But we resist His interpretation. Red also shows our willingness to bleed.

Everyday more flesh leaves our bones. They all leave. The people we love—only out of habit, for contentment. The people we love—only out of respect, for blood shared. Even our own flesh leaves us when we stress. God leaves us when his sky path goes dark. And he waits for us to die so he can peck away. But we don’t know if there’s holy flavor left in us anymore.

Bankrupting Sky Banks is an introspective work inspired by the infamous Borgia family. A half-burned invitation written to God.

We are the prey that prays.

Advance Praise

"A shocking, scandalous, searing story, made all the more visceral by the fact that it has its roots in true history, Hofstatter’s Bankrupting Sky Banks is an extraordinary foray into the dark and deceptive world of the Borgias.”
 —Christa Carmen, Bram Stoker Award-winning & Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author of The Daughters of Block Island

ISBN: 978-1-61976-278-7 (13 digit)
Publication Date: Jul 2025
paperback