The lovely bones - Alice Sebold

From the author of the stunning memoir, Lucky, comes a fiction debut narrated from heaven.

Starting with the first chapter, 14-year-old Susie Salmon recounts her rape and murder and watches her family as they cope with their grief.

My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie.

I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.

So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her -- her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling.

Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, The Lovely Bones succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.