Sleep Toward Heaven
A Novel
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4.3 • 24 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Sleep Toward Heaven' is a luminous story of murder and desire, solitude and grace, set in Manhattan and small-town Texas. In Gatestown, twenty-nine-year old Karen awaits her execution on Death Row. In New York, Franny, a doctor the same age, plans her wedding and tries to resist her urge to run. In Austin, Celia, a brassy young librarian, mourns her lost husband. Over the course of one summer, the three women’s disparate lives intertwine. Karen, Franny, and Celia all struggle to find their place in a world where nothing is sure, as they move toward one night that will change them all forever. With razor-sharp prose and humor that ignites the page, Amanda Eyre Ward’s debut novel will keep you reading all night and give you something to talk about in the morning. 'Sleep Toward Heaven' is a novel to celebrate and to savor.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
How do we forgive the unforgivable? First-time novelist Ward explores this question with a delicate blend of compassion, humor and realism. Three women whose lives converge during a stifling Texas summer have followed completely different paths in their 29 years. The horrendous childhood of death row inmate Karen Lowens led her to prostitution, drug abuse and finally murder. She now longs to find peace before her scheduled execution in the Gatestown, Tex., prison. She resists friendship, as "any connection, any tiny strand, will bind her to this world" from which she so wants to be freed. Franny Wren, Karen's prison doctor, is just as afraid to befriend Karen, knowing that she can't save her. She is fragile, having recently run out on her fianc and her life in New York City after the death of one of her cancer patients, a young girl, left her guilt-ridden and emotionally drained. Franny has returned to her childhood home in Gatestown, where she was raised by an uncle after her parents were killed by a drunk driver. Meanwhile, in Austin, Celia Mills, the only first-person narrator of the three, is the widow of Karen's final victim. She has been sleepwalking through life since the murder, and her stabs at joining the living are touching and funny ("Although my mother disagrees, I have moved forward with my life. For example, I've bought a new bikini"). Ward's celebration of human resilience never becomes preachy, sentimental or politically heavy-handed. Her spare but psychologically rich portraits are utterly convincing.
Customer Reviews
Very well written
Captivating and an interesting view of death row from multiple perspectives
Great character development
I enjoyed this book immensely. The character development is above average, with two of the main characters' stories being told in the third person, the third character in the first person. The location of central Texas hits home for me and that's what drew me to this book, but I think it's a great read for anyone. I look forward to her next release. I recommend this particular work for anyone who has an interest in diverse complicated characters and the how they eventually all cross each others' paths with an ending so unique, it is an unexpected twist that leaps off the page.