Linda is doing her best to lead a life that would appear normal to the casual observer. Weekdays, she earns $20 an hour moderating comments for a video-sharing platform, then rides the bus home to the windowless garage she rents on the outskirts of San Francisco. But on the last Friday of each month, she indulges her true passion, taking BART to SFO for a round-trip flight to a regional hub. The destination is irrelevant, because each trip means a new date with a handsome stranger—a stranger whose intelligent windscreens, sleek fuselages, and powerful engines make Linda feel a way that no human ever could. . . .

Linda knows that she can’t tell anyone she’s sexually obsessed with planes. Nor can she reveal her belief that it’s her destiny to “marry” one of her suitors by dying in a plane crash, a catastrophic event that would unite her with her soulmate plane for eternity. But when an opportunity arises to hasten her dream of eternal partnership, and the carefully balanced elements of her life begin to spin out of control, she must choose between maintaining the trappings of normalcy and launching herself headlong toward the love she’s always dreamed of.

Both subversive and unexpectedly heartwarming, Sky Daddy hijacks the classic love story, exploring desire, fate, and the longing to be accepted for who we truly are.

PRAISE:

“[A] bizarre and endearing debut . . . We can’t remember the last time we met a character this singular or read a book this funny.”—Oprah Daily (Best New Books to Read This Spring)

“Sleek and darkly comical . . . with the melancholic wit and whimsy of Miranda July.”—The Boston Globe

“Very strange and very funny.”—The Guardian

“Batty and brilliant.”—The Times (UK)

“Folk has written something truly original here: the kind of novel that startles you into remembering fiction's potential to be simultaneously deeply weird, deeply funny and deeply felt . . . Sky Daddy's deadpan humour is exquisite . . . in a fiction landscape that often bends toward the familiar and marketable, Sky Daddy reminds us that the novel's real job is to stretch the imagination to its most exhilarating limits. The best fiction doesn't just mirror desire - it deranges it, making us see the world, and ourselves, afresh.”—The Telegraph

“We have an early contender for book jacket blurb of the year: Linda, mild-mannered star of Folk’s debut novel, is constantly at the airport because she wants to know airplanes—in the biblical sense . . . There’s plenty more to be said about this oddball, surprisingly earnest novel but, frankly, if that synopsis alone is not enough to pique your interest or scare you off, I don't think there's anything else I can say that will.”—NPR

“This kinky debut spices up the flourishing genre of the Millennial early-midlife crisis novel . . . a little bit JG Ballard, a little bit Ottessa Moshfegh, the surreal premise grabs you from the first page, buoyed by bright, zingy prose. Told with verve - and nerve - it's a full-throttle thrill: strap in!”—The Daily Mail

“A zany, charming, and unexpectedly poignant portrait of a woman who feels herself to be unassimilable to the world of normal people.”—Electric Literature

“Audaciously imagined. Slyly executed. Surprisingly tender. Deliciously weird.”—Rachel Yoder, author of Nightbitch

“Sky Daddy lifts off and swiftly accelerates, breaking the barrier of your preconceptions and disbelief, taking you to utterly new places and insights. . . . A beauteous, drolly funny joy ride.”—Ling Ma, author of Bliss Montage

“This is the craziest, funniest book I’ve read in a while. And I read a lot of crazy, funny books. Get your boarding pass out and get ready for some turbulence. Sky Daddy is insane.”—Gary Shteyngart, author of Our Country Friends

“Sky Daddy is outrageously funny and smartly unsettling, as if J. G. Ballard did a story arc for New Girl. It’s an audacious comic novel about the love that really dare not say its name—also probably the worst (or . . . best?) book to read on a plane.”—Ed Park, author of Same Bed Different Dreams

“Wry, tender, and sweetly odd . . . It’s an unforgettable ode to the pursuit of desire.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“An utterly confident and endearing portrait of a woman unlike anyone readers have met before.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Kate Folk has an unusual eye and style, but if you buckle up, it’s one hell of a ride.”—Literary Hub, “Most Anticipated Books of 2025”

“Far and away one of the most audacious and surprisingly feel-good books that 2025 has to offer.”—Polygon, “Most Exciting Books for 2025”

“[A] subversive and touching love story.”—Language Arts, “2025’s Must-Read Books”