Comment

Nov 25, 2015
In Little Bird of Heaven, American author Joyce Carol Oates returns to upstate New York and the mythical town of Sparta, the setting of her previous novels We Were the Mulvaneys and The Gravedigger's Daughter. In this 2009 novel—a true emotional battlefield—a young mother is brutally murdered and the police focus on two suspects, her estranged husband, Delray Kruller, and her lover, Eddy Diehl, creating an escalating tension between the Krullers son, Aaron, and Eddy’s daughter, Krista. Both kids grow up obsessed and infatuated with each other, and it is through their voices that we get to see the life of Sparta in all its darkness and mystery. This is a brilliant and captivating tale where violence, betrayal, despair and sexuality get intertwined to a point where everything comes crashing down. Oates’ lyricism is here at its best.