Little Bird Of Heaven: A Novel [Paperback]

A searing exploration of the mysterious conjunction of erotic romance and tragic violence in late-twentieth-century America,Little Bird of Heavenreturns to the emotional and geographical terrain of acclaimed author Joyce Carol Oates's previous bestsellersWe Were the MulvaneysandThe Gravedigger's Daughter.

When young wife and mother Zoe Kruller is found brutally murdered, the police target two suspects: her estranged husband, Delray Kruller, and her longtime lover, Eddy Diehl. In turn, the Krullers' son, Aaron, and Diehl's daughter, Krista, become obsessed with each other, each believing the other's father guilty. By novel's end, the fated lovers 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.

Told in halves in the very different voices of Krista and Aaron,Little Bird of Heavenis classic Oates—where the lyricism of intense sexual love is intertwined with the anguish of loss, and tenderness is barely distinguishable from cruelty.

Neither crime, nor punishment, the ultimate coupling in the novel serves as a triumph and a release on a scale and with the intensity weve come to expect from one of our countrys premier writers.Well-told and ultimately powerful.Readers are breathlessly along for the ride, never sure if Oates will let [her characters] reach redemption or have them fall prey to the hands of their violent, unforgiving upbringings.An absorbing study of lust, trust, and an unsolved murder, Oatess gritty new mystery explores the attraction between the son of the victim and daughter of the accused.Oates 57th novel is a doozie....Its vintage Oates: tragic violence, outsize ambitions, dashed hopes, strained family bonds, manly-men roughing up sassy-yet-submissive women, and, of course, sex-crazed teenagers.In this narcotic, unnerving, brilliantly composed tale of the struggle for control over the bodylâ