When we first meet 14-year-old Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. This was before milk carton photos
and public service announcements, she tells us; back in 1973, when Susie mysteriously disappeared, people still believed these
things didn't happen.
In the sweet, untroubled voice
of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death, and her own adjustment to the strange new place
she finds herself. (It looks a lot like her school playground, with the good kind of swingset.)
With love, longing, and a
growing understanding, Susie watches her family as they cope with their grief--her father embarks on a search for the killer,
her sister undertakes a feat of amazing daring, her little brother builds a fort in her honor--and begin the difficult process
of healing.
In the hands of a brilliant
new novelist, and through the eyes of her winning young heroine, this story of seemingly unbearable tragedy is transformed
into a suspenseful, touching, even funny novel about family, memory, love, heaven, and living.
