The Edge of Heaven (Ballantine Reader's Circle) - Softcover

Golden, Marita

3.78

40 ratings by Goodreads

9780345431721: The Edge of Heaven (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345431723 ISBN 13: 9780345431721

Publisher: One World/Ballantine, 1999

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In The Edge of Heaven, Marita Golden has fashioned a deceptively simple story of a family whose lives have been shattered by a single moment of angry carelessness--told through the eyes of Teresa Singletary, a twenty-year-old college student with an overwhelming emotional burden; her father, Ryland; and her mother, Lena, whose return to her own mother's home has precipitated a reckoning with Teresa. Together they all struggle to find a place to re-learn each other--somewhere that transcends the painful reality etched into their souls--only to discover that even the darkest tragedy is rivaled by love's transforming light.

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From the Publisher:

The death of a young child can devastate a family. When a parent is responsible for the death, there is very little hope the remaining unit will survive. As The Edge of Heaven begins, Teresa, twenty, is waiting with dread for the return of her mother who has just been released from jail. Twelve years earlier, her little sister fell down a flight of stairs and died--the result of an angry, but wholly unintentional push by her mother.

Teresa is on the cusp of adulthood. Her unresolved feelings toward her mother, her life with her grandmother who is now her guardian in the wake of her father's inability to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives and assume responsibility, her concerns about her boyfriend, and her worries about her future conspire to push Teresa toward a new and frightening place.

With a deceptively simple style, Marita Golden once again uses her considerable talents--"her supple prose, convincing dialogue and brisk pacing" (Cleveland Plain Dealer)--to grab your heart and put you in the middle of this almost insupportable scenario. As Teresa comes to terms with the realities of the complexities of life, her inner strength and rapidly growing maturity assure us that her future will be a full one.

From the Back Cover:

"FIERCELY INTELLIGENT . . . A POWERFUL STORY."
--The Washington Post Book World

"Like Snow Falling on Cedars, Marita Golden's powerful new novel is more than a mystery, more than a novel about the effects of a past crime. It's a psychological page-turner."
--LEE SMITH
Author of News of the Spirit

"GOLDEN HAS A RARE GIFT FOR THE POETRY OF LANGUAGE. . . . [Her] touching story of three fierce, passionate people . . . is a triumphant journey from grief to renewed hope."
--San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle

"BREATHTAKINGLY MOVING . . . AN EMOTIONAL TOUR DE FORCE."
--Dallas Weekly

"WE REMAIN ENTHRALLED IN THE TELLING."
--Detroit Free Press

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