Lovely bones

Author: Alice Sebold (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: June 1, 2004
Features: My last name is Salmon, which sounds like "salmon," and my name is Susie. On October 6, 1973, I was only fourteen years old when I was murdered. The murderer was my neighbor. My mother liked the flowers in his garden, and my father even asked him how to fertilize them. In the novel, Susie Salmon makes her first appearance in heaven. From this strange new place, she looks down on the human world, telling us a bittersweet but hopeful story in the fresh and lively voice of a fourteen-year-old girl. Heaven looks very much like a school playground, with a nice swing set, and there are tutors to help newcomers and friends to live with her. As long as she thinks about it, whatever she wants appears before her. But she wanted to return to the human world to spend time with the person she loved, yet she could never fulfill her wish.
Alice Sebold, the author of The Lovely Bones, employs bold narrative techniques to transform a tragic human story into a suspenseful yet witty and heartwarming tale. It is a deeply empathetic and healing novel. The book has been on the New York Times bestseller list for nearly thirty weeks, staying on the list for over seventy weeks. It has been a bestseller for two years. It was selected as a recommended book by the American "Book of the Month Club" and won the "American Novel of the Year" award. It was also named one of the "Best Books of the Year in the UK." In the "Top 20 Books of 2003" list compiled by France's L'Express magazine, it ranked second. Currently, the book is published in English, French, Japanese, Chinese, and other languages, with sales exceeding five million copies. A film adaptation of the book will be directed by Peter Jackson, the director of The Lord of the Rings.
The story of The Lovely Bones is somber, describing the thoughts of a teenage girl who was raped and murdered. The narrator is the victim herself, and the first sentence of the novel is: "On December 6, 1993, I was only fourteen years old when I was murdered." The protagonist tells the reader about the impact of her murder on her family, the police investigation, and her life in heaven. The author writes from the perspective of Susie, a fourteen-year-old girl, looking down from heaven at the world she has left behind, like "a fish floating in the sky." Of course, she doesn’t see what she’d like to see: her mother is devastated by her death; her father beats her girlfriend, Clarissa, believing it is her fault that his daughter died. The real murderer is her neighbor, Harvey, but the police are ineffective in capturing him, allowing him to escape. Susie follows his movements from heaven.
Susie also has a close friend, Ruth, and a younger brother in the human world. Susie’s soul appears to them constantly. Her friend Ruth never forgets her and, as she grows up, dedicates herself to becoming a witness in the trial of the crime. The author ends the book with Susie’s voice, saying goodbye to them...