The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Stories that involve the afterlife can often be fanciful and fantastic and motivated in no small part by wishful thinking and supernatural happenings. This novel is different. The book opens with the following paragraph-

"My name is Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973. In newspaper photos of missing girls from the seventies, most looked like me: white girls with mousy brown hair. This was before kids of all races and genders started appearing on milk cartons or in the daily mail. It was still back when people believed things like that didn’t happen."

In the novel the victim of a brutal murder and rape is the narrator from beyond the grave of the events as they unfold in her circle of grieving family and friends. It is a well written study of the tensions that emerge in families and friends as they come to terms with a traumatic event. Through being able to communicate with the living Susie manages to help solve the mystery and bring her murderer to justice. There is also healing in her family though the family after her death becomes very different to what it was when she was a living part of it.

Sebold herself was raped as a college student and thus has a deep insight into the emotions generated as she reflects on the experience. It is notable for the particular, sympathetic and understanding portrait that she paints of the perpetrator of the crime. But she never excuses his actions. It is these factors that make this book stand out from lesser supernatural thrillers.

The book has been criticised by some conservative Christians because it has a particular non-religious, non-judgemental view of heaven. Sebold's version of the afterlife is not consistent with any particular religions doctrines. Sebold has countered by saying this is not a religious book but rather she is using the perspective of a soul in the afterlife as a literary device to illustrate a tragic story from a unique perspective.

The book was a bestseller for twelve months after publication in 2002 and I enjoyed reading it. 

The Lovely Bones