Sebold takes an impossible idea and pulls it off. In the first chapter, 14-year-old Susie Salmon recounts her rape and murder by a neighbor. The rest of the novel, spanning nearly 20 years, is narrated by Susie, from heaven. The Lovel...

For years Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic father, to her husband and grown children. When she finally crosses a terrible boundary, her life comes rushing in at her in a way she neve...