Artwork courtesy of Bony Ramirez
BEYOND THE BATHS OF STARS
Forthcoming from Amistad / HarperCollins 11/3/26.
PRE-ORDER HERE
A dazzling literary debut that reimagines The Odyssey and asks what power do we have to control our own fate when destiny feels pre-determined and the systems of the world are broken?
Eurick Ulysse is irrevocably trapped: by poverty, by class, and by his immigrant parents’ expectations. Disillusioned by dead-end jobs, unaffordable college aspirations, and the doldrums of his South Florida hood, he resolves to piss his life away getting drunk with his friends on the beach. But the night Eurick drags a delirious and half-drowned Ana María Cortez out of the sea, everything changes.
Carefree, unconventional, and well-to-do, Ana comes from another world. She invites Eurick and his friends out on a wild joyride through the Miami streets, a night replete with casino runs, boat thefts, and strange surreal encounters. Soon, Eurick finds himself rebelling against every constraint that’s ever held him back. It isn’t long before he realizes just how trapped he is, growing more and more desperate to do whatever it takes to escape.
Will one night of freedom allow Eurick to see another kind of life for himself? Or will it show him a future that remains forever out of reach?
ADVANCE PRAISE
One of Debutiful’s most anticipated books of 2026
Beyond the Baths of Stars is refreshing, cool, and young, but at no point does it forsake its poetry, lyrical achievement and experimental quality. Schneider K. Rancy is a potent new voice, and a rightful heir to the traditions he inhabits.
— Julia Kornberg, author of BERLIN ATOMIZED
Beyond the Bath of Stars boldly confronts the immense burdens of history, circumstance, and fate. When a mysterious encounter with a mystical woman unmoors him, protagonist Eurick goes adrift and dares to free himself from the burdens weighing down his life as the frustrated son of Haitian immigrants. Schneider K. Rancy captures the suffocating impact of systemic oppression, the intoxicating danger of surmounting it, and the hunger for rebellion with ethereal prose that blurs the line between our world and the next. Beyond the Bath of stars is a riveting, beautiful, and magical debut.
— Leila Renee, author of SOFT SPOTS
Layers of storytelling run deep in BEYOND THE BATHS OF STARS. Distinctly Diasporic in breadth, Rancy poetically explores the heavy expectations placed on first generation children and the painful in-between-ness with which they must contend. Brave in its honesty and vulnerability, a wonderful debut.
— Erin E. Adams, author of JACKAL and ONE OF YOU