Heaven is Small - Softcover

Schultz, Emily

3.31 out of 5 stars

144 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0887849563 ISBN 13: 9780887849565

Publisher: House of Anansi Press, 2010

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Moments after his death, an event he had failed to notice, Gordon Small sought new employment.” So begins Heaven Is Small, the funny, startling, and profound story of Gordon Small, a degree-clutching slacker and failed fiction writer who finds himself posthumously employed at the Heaven Book Company, the world’s largest romance publisher. As it slowly dawns on Gordon that he may have missed his chance for greatness and perhaps worse, may be trapped in an airless limbo he embarks on a mission that will redeem him, revive his writing career, and bring the monotonous machinery of the afterlife to a screeching halt. With sly deadpan humor, brilliant insight into the human condition, and exceptionally beautiful writing, Emily Schultz explores what it means to be truly alive only after you’re dead.

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About the Author

Emily Schultz is the author of Heaven Is Small, which was a finalist for the 2010 Trillium Award alongside books by Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Ian Brown, and Anne Michaels. Schultz is the co-publisher of the international online fiction hub, Joyland Magazine, which the CBC called "the go-to place for the best in short fiction." Schultz has lived in Toronto, Ontario; Richmond, Virginia; and currently in Brooklyn, New York. Her new novel, The Blondes, is forthcoming with Doubleday Canada.

Review

Schultz's latest is a satire of office life, romance novels, and afterlife narratives. She has accomplished something quite remarkable here...
--Publishers Weekly

Heaven is Small is confident, disturbing and clever reeling us along.... Schultz's voice is stronger than ever, her storytelling tighter and her writing still replete with those trademark ziplines, surprising little protons of description that vault the reader into Schultz's unique narrative universe.
--Globe and Mail

Schultz manages to channel the utter absurdity of romance novels and the workplace into a mostly charming book about someone who is just trying to make a difference, even if they missed the opportunity while they were alive.... A well-written meditation on how we choose to live our lives, and who we choose to live them for.
--Verbicide

Heaven Is Small [is] a stunning, often surprising read with moments of such audacity that the reader is likely to gasp out loud. . . . Schultz is an impressive talent . . . creating something new, something unique. The result is bold and winning, the sort of novel that satisfies on every level...
--Vancouver Sun, Robert J. Wiersema

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