- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (Feb 5 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0060582294
- ISBN-13: 978-0060582296
- Product Dimensions: 20.5 x 13.5 x 1.9 cm
- Shipping Weight: 249 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #694,173 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
How do we forgive the unforgivable? First-time novelist Ward explores this question with a delicate blend of compassion, humor and realism. Three women whose lives converge during a stifling Texas summer have followed completely different paths in their 29 years. The horrendous childhood of death row inmate Karen Lowens led her to prostitution, drug abuse and finally murder. She now longs to find peace before her scheduled execution in the Gatestown, Tex., prison. She resists friendship, as "any connection, any tiny strand, will bind her to this world" from which she so wants to be freed. Franny Wren, Karen's prison doctor, is just as afraid to befriend Karen, knowing that she can't save her. She is fragile, having recently run out on her fiance and her life in New York City after the death of one of her cancer patients, a young girl, left her guilt-ridden and emotionally drained. Franny has returned to her childhood home in Gatestown, where she was raised by an uncle after her parents were killed by a drunk driver. Meanwhile, in Austin, Celia Mills, the only first-person narrator of the three, is the widow of Karen's final victim. She has been sleepwalking through life since the murder, and her stabs at joining the living are touching and funny ("Although my mother disagrees, I have moved forward with my life. For example, I've bought a new bikini"). Ward's celebration of human resilience never becomes preachy, sentimental or politically heavy-handed. Her spare but psychologically rich portraits are utterly convincing.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
From Booklist
Ward's impressive debut novel is a powerhouse of melancholic emotions channeled through the jagged lives of her intricate cast of female characters. Karen Lowen is on death row for the murder of numerous men, all of whom (with the exception of one) she claims to have killed in self-defense. The innocent man who crossed Karen's path on that tragic night has left behind a grieving widow named Celia, who cannot find purpose in a life that is empty of her beloved Henry. Then there is Dr. Franny Wren, a consummate professional dedicated to preserving life--now stoically treating women destined to die behind bars. While Celia and Franny grapple with the weight of their hidden desires and lifelong regrets, Karen faces the cold reality of death row and the inevitable sentence that looms before her. Ward deftly creates a route by which all three women irrevocably touch each other's lives, their sorrow reaching through the darkness like searching fingers on the hand of destiny. Elsa Gaztambide
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
On Wednesday, they begin to get ready for the Satan Killer, who is due to arrive after lunch. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
On Wednesday, they begin to get ready for the Satan Killer, who is due to arrive after lunch. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
LIVING ON DEATH ROW,
By
This review is from: Sleep Toward Heaven (Paperback)
"There is something catty about the women. I don't know. With the men it's very straightforward, but with the women there`s the............you might say the cunning."The title of the book alone was what drew me to it "Sleep Towards Heaven". It is a work well done for this first novelist Amanda Eyre Ward. Set in Gatestown, Texas, we are invited into the lives of four women on Death Row. The story centres too around two totally different individuals whose lives will be affected by one of these women sentenced to death by lethal injection. We meet Celia a widow who has lost her husband to murder, and Franny a doctor and caregiver, who spends her time with the incarcerated, and of course Karen, who is at the core of the tale. As these lives intertwine, we see harshness without forgiveness, severe love, stubbornness and also grace and love. It shows us what people would do for the sake of love; how far one would go to have one's love returned, or just to satisfy the one loved. These women live their last days out watching TV, doing handicraft, praying and deciding what their last meals will be before their deaths, when they will be sentenced, and some of them become changed in spiritual ways, relying on God's forgiveness and going to a better place after death. It is sad but it is well told and it is a good first effort. Reviewed by Heather Marshall Negahdar (SUGAR-CANE 14/10/06
5.0 out of 5 stars
Captivating!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Sleep Toward Heaven: A Novel (Paperback)
I fully agree with the reviewers who gave this wonderful book 5 stars. I began reading this book in the afternoon, read off and on the rest of the day, and couldn't go to sleep until I finished it. The way the author weaves together the three women and their places in the story is engrossing. If this is Ms. Ward's first novel, I can't wait for more.
5.0 out of 5 stars
How Easily we are All Linked in this World,
By
This review is from: Sleep Toward Heaven: A Novel (Paperback)
For a first book by an author,this is very good.The onlyobjection I had,was the style of the linked characters each telling their story.I thought it jumped around in the beginning and I had to go back and check their status,with each chapter. That said,the story draws you into the failed romance of Dr. Fran Wren,a New York City physician,and her failed medical mistakes.Franny decides to leave her fiance,and return to her roots in Waco,Texas. Outside of Waco,is a women's prison where Franny's Uncle,Dr. Wren,spent some of his time attending to the patients.Dr. Jack Wren,dies suddenly and Franny is asked to temporarily take his place. Reluctantly,Fran agrees to treat the women,some who are on Death Row.The women she finds herself assigned to are distinguished by names like Satan Killer,The Black Widow,(a serial bride who poisoned her husbands), and Karen,who is HIV-positive,and sentenced to die. Karen was terribly abused by men all her life-but she also took innocent life and that is debated in this book,along with Capital punishment. It ends with almost an O.Henry ending,impossible to guess. I hope Ms. Ward writes more books.I am waiting
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