Sweet Lamb of Heaven: A Novel - Softcover

Millet, Lydia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393354180 ISBN 13: 9780393354188

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2017

Synopsis

Longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction: Blending domestic thriller and psychological horror, this compelling page-turner follows a mother fleeing her estranged husband.

Lydia Millet’s previous work has been shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Likewise greeted with rapturous praise, Sweet Lamb of Heaven is a first-person account of a young mother, Anna, fleeing her cold and unfaithful husband, a businessman who’s just launched his first campaign for political office. When Ned chases Anna and their six-year-old daughter from Alaska to Maine, the two go into hiding in a run-down motel on the coast. But the longer they stay, the less the guests in the dingy motel look like typical tourists―and the less Ned resembles a typical candidate. As his pursuit of Anna and their child moves from threatening to criminal, Ned begins to alter his wife’s world in ways she never could have imagined. 

A double-edged and satisfying story with a strong female protagonist, a thrilling plot, and a creeping sense of the apocalyptic, Sweet Lamb of Heaven builds to a shattering ending with profound implications for its characters―and for all of us.

About this title

About the Author:

Lydia Millet has written twelve works of fiction, which have won PEN-USA and Academy of Arts and Letters fiction prizes and been New York Times Notables and Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalists, among other honors. She lives in Arizona.

Review:

“[A]n extraordinary metaphysical thriller from one of America’s most inventive novelists.”
- Laura Miller, Slate

“A rare pleasure to read... Millet’s fine prose [is] as rich with fresh imagery as it is open-minded to life’s hidden possibilities.”
- Matthew Gilbert, The Boston Globe

“Lydia Millet is not as popular as she should be. This novel will change that...Her ambitious new novel, Sweet Lamb of Heaven, is part fast-paced thriller, part quiet meditation on the nature of God.”
- Lisa Zeidner, Washington Post

“Millet’s sense of pacing is acute and her prose is glittering and exact.”
- New Yorker

“[A] hypnotic novel of psychological and philosophical suspense.”
- O Magazine

“[A]ddictive, unsettling... sneaks in some high-minded themes (the nature of reality, the fragility of human connection) without distracting one iota from the suspense. A winner.”
- People

“[A] novel so eerie, so chilling and provocative, that you might find yourself rethinking everything you thought you knew about language, belief, and where our human race might be going.”
- Caroline Leavitt, San Francisco Chronicle

“[P]repare to be surprised by more than plot twists. . . . the Pulitzer finalist’s philosophical fireworks add layers of energy and mystery.”
- Boris Katchka, Vulture

“Millet evinces a rare capacity to surprise and fascinate readers... Unpredictable in the best sense, Millet’s eye-opening stories and conceptions are irresistibly interesting. This may be her most beguiling and accessible creation yet.”
- David Wright, The Seattle Times

“A peculiar, stirring thriller. . . . Millet has a knack for planting plainspoken, world-weary narrators in otherworldly circumstances, and Anna is one of her sharpest, most intriguingly philosophical creations.”
- Kirkus Reviews

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0393354180
• ISBN 13: 9780393354188
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256