Little Bird of Heaven

Little Bird of Heaven

First edition
Author Joyce Carol Oates
Country United States
Language English
Publisher Ecco Press
Publication date
15 September 2009
Media type Print (Hardback)
Pages 443 pp
ISBN 978-0-06-182983-3
OCLC 310399122
813/.54 22
LC Class PS3565.A8 G73 2007
Preceded by My Sister, My Love

Little Bird of Heaven is a 2009 novel by Joyce Carol Oates. It is her 38th published novel. The novel is the third set in the fictional city of Sparta, NY, which was also a main setting for her two previous best-sellers We Were the Mulvaneys and The Gravedigger's Daughter.

Plot summary

Zoe Kruller, a wife and mother who sells her body to provide for her family, is found brutally murdered. The Sparta police target two primary suspects: her estranged husband, Delray Kruller, and her longtime lover, Eddy Diehl. In turn, the Krullers' son, Aaron, and Eddy Diehl's daughter, Krista, become obsessed with each other, each believing the other's father is guilty. By the novel's end, the fated lovers, meeting again as adults, are at last ready to exorcise the ghosts of the past and come to terms with their legacy of guilt, misplaced love, and redemptive yearning.

Reception

The novel was shortlisted for the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.[1]

References

  1. "William Trevor makes an Impac", Irish Times, April 12, 2011