Safe in Heaven Dead

By Samuel Ligon
(Harper Perennial, Paperback, 9780060099114, 256pp.)

Publication Date: April 2004

Categories: General

Buy online from an indie bookstore
Find an indie bookstore near you

Link to this Book


Description

Safe in Heaven Dead, a first novel similar to last year's art house movie phenomenon, Memento, is a page–turning literary noir by a brilliant new writer.

Everything was rolling along smoothly for Robert Elgin. He and his wife, Laura, had a loving marriage, and had taken enough "me" time before having kids – one girl, one boy. After doing the hippie, idealistic thing for awhile, he finally allowed his father in law to get him a job in labour negotiations where he could still fuel his power to the people energies by fighting on the common man's behalf.

When Robert becomes too good at his job and is recruited by the County Executive's office to conspire in some dirty negotiations that would allow for a run at Governor, the perfect life begins to crumble. And to make matters much, much worse, Robert learns his five year–old daughter has been molested by the local 12 year–old neighbour, and the crumbling becomes a full–scale slide.

While his wife becomes obsessed with grief counsellors, rape specialists, being saved by Jesus, and putting the twelve year old behind bars, Robert finds himself losing touch with his family and losing his grip on reality. When he learns of a secret, dirty fund the labour office has been skimming off the public, he takes the money and runs. And so begins Robert's life as a dead man.

Told from the end to the beginning, this Memento–style literary noir about one man's undoing is a fresh new style of fiction. Safe in Heaven Dead is a stunning book by a new voice in contemporary literature.




About the Author

Samuel Ligon's stories have appeared in The Quarterly, Story Quarterly, Manoa, Other Voices, and the Cimarron Review. He lives with his wife and two children in Madison, Wisconsin.




Praise For Safe in Heaven Dead

“A superbly convincing first novel...An expertly motivated debut that moves briskly and doesn’t lose sight of its affecting purpose.”
-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Indie Bookstore Finder

Indie Bestsellers

1Q84
Haruki Murakami
Knopf
The Marriage Plot
Jeffrey Eugenides
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
The Sense of an Ending
Julian Barnes
Knopf
Death Comes to Pemberley
PD James
Knopf

Make Your Own Wishlist






Update Profile