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The Lovely Bones
 
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The Lovely Bones (Paperback)

by Alice Sebold (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (295 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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The Lovely Bones + The Time Traveler's Wife + The Book Thief
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  • This item: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

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  • The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

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Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Picador; New edition edition (6 Jun 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0330485385
  • ISBN-13: 978-0330485388
  • Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 13 x 2.5 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (295 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 896 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #1 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > S > Sebold, Alice

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
On her way home from school on a snowy December day, 14-year-old Susie Salmon is lured into a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case.

As Sebold fashions it, everyone has his or her own version of heaven. Susie's resembles the athletic fields and landscape of a suburban high school: a heaven of her "simplest dreams", where "there were no teachers... We never had to go inside except for art class... The boys did not pinch our backsides or tell us we smelled; our textbooks were Seventeen and Glamour and Vogue".

The Lovely Bones works as an odd yet affecting coming-of-age story. Susie struggles to accept her death while still clinging to the lost world of the living, following her family's dramas over the years. Her family disintegrates in their grief: her father becomes determined to find her killer, her mother withdraws, her little brother Buckley attempts to make sense of the new hole in his family and her younger sister Lindsey moves through the milestone events of her teenage and young adult years with Susie riding spiritual shotgun. Random acts and missed opportunities run throughout the book--Susie recalls her sole kiss with a boy on earth as "like an accident--a beautiful gasoline rainbow".

Though sentimental at times, The Lovely Bones is a moving exploration of loss and mourning that ultimately puts its faith in the living and that is made even more powerful by a cast of convincing characters. Sebold orchestrates a big finish and though things tend to wrap up a little too well for everyone in the end, one can only imagine (or hope) that heaven is indeed a place filled with such happy endings. --Brad Thomas Parsons, Amazon.com

Review
'My name was Salmon, like the fish, first name, Susie I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973. My murderer was a man from our neighborhood. My mother liked his border flowers, and my father talked to him once about fertilizer.'

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70% buy the item featured on this page:
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Customer Reviews

295 Reviews
5 star:
 (166)
4 star:
 (57)
3 star:
 (29)
2 star:
 (24)
1 star:
 (19)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (295 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking..., 20 Aug 2003
By T. Gouveia (Portugal) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I must admit that strangers starred at me as tears flowed while I read the book on the train on my way home. I have never read such a captivating book, I simply just had to finish it in one day.
Till date this is Alice Sebold's only fiction novel that I know of, the other is non-fiction and is called 'Lucky'. In it holds the key to why she could write and transmit to us a nightmare horror, for she too was raped on her way home.
I cried for the main character, Susie, because she was frozen in a child like body, while watching her sister and brother grow up, the end of her parent's marriage and eventually her mother's transformation. In 'Lucky' you will read how the author's own mother battled with alcohol and personality problems. Both books are entwined, I think, one true, the other make believe, both the author's attempt to deal with ghosts of the past as well as the unanswered question, what if she had been murdered that day?
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Anatomy of a family's grief, 21 Oct 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: The Lovely Bones (Hardcover)
In her memorable debut novel, The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold has fashioned a moving study of what really happens to both the living and the dead when a child dies. Susie Salmon is fourteen when she is raped and murdered by a neighbour and, despite her father's insistence that he knows the murder's identity, the police fail to catch him and Susie's body lies where it was left, undetected. What follows is a deeply affecting anatomy of a family's grief and the cruel way that bereavement can expose and exploit existing fissures in familial relationships. Susie's parents are driven apart by their inability to mourn together, and the remaining children, Lindsay and Buckley are left to cope as best they can.

Watching this family tragedy unfold is Susie herself who narrates the story from her position in heaven. Unbeknown to her grieving family, Susie's spirit is as alive as ever, able to witness their daily lives and to move silently among them, willing them to come to terms with her death and to heal themselves. Susie knows that she isn't in the real heaven yet - only its antechamber - but she also knows that she cannot relinquish her position until both she and her family have made peace with their loss and until she has experienced temporal pleasures for the first and only time as an adult.

Although Sebold's vision of heaven may be a tad too sentimental for some and her desire for a happy ending may obscure some of the deeper truths of the grieving process, this is a beautifully realised fairy tale for grown-ups, whimsical and inspiring in equal measure.

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84 of 91 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars What a lovely book The Lovely Bones is..., 10 Jun 2003
By A Customer
This is a beautiful novel. Once in a while a really special first novel emerges and this is one such novel.

From the first page when the narrator reveals herself to be dead; brutally raped and murdered as a school girl, the reader knows that this is something quite different and compelling. This is a book that is virtually impossible to put down and it stays with you when you're not reading it. You will search out time to read it.

Alice Sebold's novel works on may levels. At the simplest level there is a thriller within the novel in the shape of 'Will the murderer be caught?'

At the heart of the book is the tale of a family living their lives after the murder of their daughter/ sister and how this changes everyone's story. This is where Sebold excells. The descriptions of the love and friendship between a father and child are beautifully well observed and painfully moving. As is the account of what it means for a parent to lose this.

The Lovely Bones is also a tribute to women and children who have experienced violence.

Sebold covers so much ground here and even manages to tell the story of Susie Salmon's murderer.

You may think that this is a heavy book, but nothing could be further from the truth. The prose is deft and clipt. At the same time the description of Susie's heaven is beautifully poetic.

This is a book full of light and hope. Susie Salmon will emerge as one of modern literatures favourite characters and her story will stay with you long after the last page is read.

Read Lucky and you will learn how and why Alice Sebold created such a wonderful generous world from a tragic beginning.

Read and enjoy.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A lovely story about a horrendous event
For me this book was about learning to let go, each character in a way needed to let go of something in order to move on. Read more
Published 4 days ago by Ona

3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable but flawed
Written in the plain english of a fourteen year old girl, the book starts off brilliantly: it evokes nostalgia, warmth, love, pain, grief - and does so without being overly... Read more
Published 27 days ago by Mr. S. Fell

4.0 out of 5 stars The Lovely Bones
A good read that makes you think about life after death and how people cope with the death of a loved one. More thought enhancing than sad!
Published 1 month ago by Avid Reader

5.0 out of 5 stars Have the tissues ready
The premise of this book is very original, it is told from the point of view of Susie, who has just been raped and murdered. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Louise

5.0 out of 5 stars A moving and compelling read...I was gripped from the start.
I was first introduced to this novel in my second year of sixth form, when I did it for my A-level. I didn't know what to expect at first, and I'll admit I was dubious as to... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Ms. Alice Penrith

1.0 out of 5 stars What a waste of my life
I've never given anything a 1 star rating before, but this one truly deserves it.

I'll give Sebold this - the idea for this novel is gold - Susie Salmon is only 14... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Marlyly

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down
I was on holiday in Spain and desperately needed something to read. There is a small library (free) within the complex where I have my apartment and I went to look for something... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mrs. S. M. Lowrie

5.0 out of 5 stars You WILL cry!
Wow - This book is simply one of the most amazing reading experiences I have ever had. I was captivated and still think of it often 4 years later. Read more
Published 3 months ago by M. E. Martin

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning
Stunning idea, beautiully told, haunting and eloquent. I highly recommend this book - it really does stay with you for long after you have finished it.
Published 3 months ago by emma_scriptwriter

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy this, buy her debut novel 'Lucky' instead
I bought this after hearing so much about it from friends. All of them (& their book clubs) have raved & recommended to everyone and I was surprised that such a good book had... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Ms. K. Russell

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