A very impressive first novel, Sebold’s The Lovely Bones deals with the grief, self-destruction, and eventual healing of a suburban family after daughter Susie is brutally raped and murdered. What saves the book from drowning in its grim premise is her deft choice of narrator—the murdered girl herself, who watches from the afterlife with sadness, love, and pity for those she left behind. If you haven’t yet sampled Sebold’s artfully constructed prose, do so now before the movie version coming next year inevitably colors any future discovery of the book.
Adath Jeshurun, 10500 Hillside Ln., Minnetonka, (866) 468-3401, www.hclib.org
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