When we first meet Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. As she looks down from this strange new place, she tells us, in the fresh and spirited voice of a fourteen-year-old girl, a tale that is both haunting and full of hope.

In the weeks following her death, Susie watches life on Earth continuing without her -- her school friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her family holding out hope that she'll be found, her killer trying to cover his tracks. As months pass without leads, Susie sees her parents' marriage being contorted by loss, her sister hardening herself in an effort to stay strong, and her little brother trying to grasp the meaning of the word gone.

And she explores the place called heaven. It looks a lot like her school playground, with the good kind of swing sets. There are counselors to help newcomers adjust and friends to room with. Everything she ever wanted appears as soon as she thinks of it -- except the thing she most wants: to be back with the people she loved on Earth.

With compassion, longing, and a growing understanding, Susie sees her loved ones pass through grief and begin to mend. Her father embarks on a risky quest to ensnare her killer. Her sister undertakes a feat of remarkable daring. And the boy Susie cared for moves on, only to find himself at the center of a miraculous event.

The Lovely Bones is luminous and astonishing, a novel that builds out of grief the most hopeful of stories. In the hands of a brilliant new writer, this story of the worst thing a family can face is transformed into a suspenseful and even funny novel about love, memory, joy, heaven, and healing.

Book Discussion Questions:

1. In Susie's Heaven, she is surrounded by things that bring her peace. What would your Heaven be like? Is it significant that there is no God or larger being that presides in Susie's Heaven?

    

2. Why does Ruth become Susie's main connection to the Earth? Was it accidental that Susie touched Ruth on her way up to Heaven or was Ruth chosen to be Susie's emotional conduit? If she was chosen, by whom and why?

    

3. How do Susie's family and friends experience and deal with their feelings of grief, loneliness and solitude after Susie's death? Why do you think each of the characters acts in the way that he or she does?

    

4. Alice Sebold once said in an article that murderers "are not animals but men" and that is what makes them so frightening. What did she mean? Do you agree? How is Sebold's view of murderers revealed in her descriptions of Mr. Harvey? How does this affect her telling of the overall story?

    

5. Discuss the way in which guilt manifests itself in the various characters - Jack, Abigail, Lindsay, Mr. Harvey, and Len Fenerman.

    

6. "Pushing on the inbetween" is how Susie describes her efforts to connect with those she has left behind on Earth. Have you ever felt as though someone was trying to communicate with you from the "inbetween"?

    

7. Does Buckley really see Susie, or does he only pretend to in order to understand and cope with her death? Do you think Susie's parents do a good job helping Buckley comprehend the loss of his sister?

    

8. Susie is killed just as she is beginning to see her mother and father as real people, not just as parents. Watching her parents' relationship change in the wake of her death, she begins to understand how they react to world and to each other. What does Susie learn about her parents? How does this newfound understanding affect her?

    

9. Why does Susie's mother, Abigail, leave her family behind?

    

10. Why does Abigail leave Susie's photo outside the Chicago airport on her way back to her family? Why does Jack retain such a tight hold on Susie's clothes and other possessions? What is the significance of physical reminders of Susie to the people she loves?

     

11. Susie observes that "the living deserve attention, too" as she watches her sister, Lindsay, being neglected as those around her focus all their attention on grieving for Susie. How does this affect Susie's siblings? When is it time to let go of a loved one? Do people have any obligation to a loved one after his or her death?

     

12. Compare and contrast Abigail and Jack Salmon's responses to Susie's death. How would you characterize them - Appropriate? Selfish? Realistic? Unbelievable?

     

13. How would you characterize the adult relationships in the book (Abigail and Jack; Ray's parents; Abigail and Len)? What about the relationships between young people (Lindsay and Samuel; Ray and Susie, Ray and Ruth)? What do you think the author is saying about age and love? Age and grief?

     

14. Consider the book's final chapters. What do you think the author is saying about tragedy? Can good come out of something bad? Does it matter that Mr. Harvey was never caught?

     

15. The author, Alice Sebold, was raped at the age of 18 and wrote about the experience in her first book Lucky. What do you think is the role of personal experience in the writing of fiction? Is all fiction autobiographical?