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Sebastian Michael was born into a Swiss family in Manchester, UK, and grew up in Basel, Switzerland. Aged 21, he returned to England, this time London, his favourite city in the world, where he has been living ever since.
Sebastian has written several stage plays, among them The Power of Love, Love Hurts and Time After Time, which together now form the Love Trilogy and each of which individually reached the shortlist, long list and final ten respectively of the Verity Bargate Award in separate years.
His most recent plays to be fully staged are Elder Latimer is in Love (Arcola Theatre, 2009) and Top Story (The Old Vic Tunnels, January 2013). His next play, Baur Au Lac, is earmarked for production in 2014. Earlier plays of his were seen on the London and Edinburgh Fringe.
Sebastian has written and directed two short films: Twenty-Six Takes on Life Without Allen and The Study of Bunkers & Mounds in a Temperate Climate (Relatively Speaking), and his debut feature, The Hour of Living, was completed in February 2012 and has since been nominated for the Basel Film Prize.
Sebastian is the writer of Genius Planet, a collaboration with Professor Ludger Hovestadt and Vera Bühlmann of ETH Zürich, which postulates a radical roadmap from energy scarcity to abundance, and is due for publication in 2013.
Angel is Sebastian Michael's first novel.
Reviewed by Nicolle Williams for Readers' Favorite
"Angel" by Sebastian Michael explores the life of Damion, the most beautiful boy in the world. His beauty is so great that everyone he meets seems to fall in love with him despite their gender or sexuality and people cannot believe he is human. They feared that he must be an angel. Growing up, Damion experienced many traumatic events, the most dominant being the deaths of friends and family, and eventually this seemed to take its toll on Damion. One night changed Damion's life forever. There was a fire in which people died, but Damion survived, just barely. He was scarred for life. He was no longer the most beautiful man in the world, but a horrific sight which made people gag. During this time we get an insight into the real Damion and his feelings before and after the fire, leading to a revelation about the fire.
Although the beginning is slow, the second half of the book is so poignant that it nearly brought me to tears. Sebastian Michael has a superb writing talent and can describe raw emotion in such a way that it really affects the reader. The turn of events after the fire is the making of this book and answers many questions about Damion which weren't so clear in the beginning. This novel is not polished or pristine. It is not the perfect story and it doesn't leave the reader totally satisfied with a happy ending. Yet it is written in such a way that it reflects real life and the harsh reality of being scarred both physically and mentally. A wonderful and thoughtful book which will leave you thinking about Damion for days after you have finished reading. It will definitely enhance your appreciation of 'normal' life.
