Ascension is the story of a disconcerted youth, an anthem for a new doomed youth. It is a novel concerned with friendship and unrequited love. It tells the story of a young writer, William Radcliffe Yates, and his best friend Gabriel Lethe who with his raw, wild, and untamed energy has become the writers' obsession. William is searching for the inspiration he needs to write, and the rite of passage that he feels will take him into manhood as his student days near their end. Gabriel is only seeking to live and love in any way possible. It is a relationship of adoration, mutual respect, manipulation, and a lingering sexual desire as the young artist seeks to find his making through Gabriel's experiences. The novel is set over four days in Manchester, where hedonism and excess have found a natural home, and as the characters and their relationships develop the excess hurtles the writer and his Muse toward a conclusion that was always inescapable.