Author:Amanda Eyre Ward
In Gatestown, Texas, twenty-nine-year-old Karen awaits her execution on Death Row. In New York, Franny, a doctor the same age, plans her wedding and tries to resist the urge to run. In Austin, Celia, a beautiful young librarian, mourns her lost husband. Over the course of one summer, the three women's disparate lives intertwine. Karen, Franny and Celia all struggle to find their place in a world where nothing is sure, as they move towards one night that will change them all forever. A heart-stopping page-turner about love and forgiveness, Sleep Toward Heaven is unforgettable. Praise for Sleep Toward Heaven'Ward's no-nonsense, unflinching prose and her complex but never confounding structure make this novel very tough to put down. But her greater triumph is her ability to humanize all these characters.'Pam Houston, "O" The Oprah Magazine'It's funny and sad and redemptive. Read it now. Thank me later.'Jennifer Weiner, the New York Times bestselling author of Good in Bed and In Her Shoes'Women's Death Row as you have never seen it; hauntingly rich, wise and sharply etched.' James Ellroy'How do we forgive the unforgivable? First-time novelist Ward explores this question with a delicate blend of compassion, humour and realism-Her spare but psychologically rich portraits are utterly convincing.' Publishers Weekly
Intimate...unflinching. Very tough to put down.
—— Pam Houston, "O" The Oprah MagazineIt's funny and sad and redemptive. Read it now. Thank me later.
—— Jennifer WeinerHow do we forgive the unforgivable? First-time novelist Ward explores this question with a delicate blend of compassion, humour and realism...Her spare but psychologically rich portraits are utterly convincing.
—— Publishers WeeklyThis is the one novel that everyone insisted I took with me. Set in a Sudanese village by the Nile, it is a brilliant exploration of African encounters with the West, and the corrupting power of colonialism. I never got this book out to read without someone coming up to tell me how brilliant it was
—— Mary BeardAn Arabian Nights in reverse, enclosing a pithy moral about international misconceptions and delusions...Powerfully and poetically written and splendidly translated by Denys Johnson-Davies
—— ObserverThe prose, translated from Arabic, has a grave beauty. It's the story of a man who returns to his native Sudan after being educated in England, then encounters the first Sudanese to get an English education. The near-formal elegance in the writing contrasts with the sly anti-colonial world view of the book, and this makes it even more interesting
—— Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieDenys Johnson-Davies...the leading Arabic-English translator of our time
—— Edward Said