"With fierce intelligence and emotional intensity, Alice Sebold brings us a searing portrait of a mother-daughter bond that descends into murder. Clair and Helen Knightly are a parent and child locked in a relationship so unrelenting that they have become the center of each other's worlds. But as this novel opens, Helen crosses a boundary she never thought she would approach. And while her act is almost unconscious, it somehow seems like the fulfillment...

When 14-year-old Susie Salmon was murdered, she left her unfinished life behind. Now from her place in a strange but beautiful in-between world, she must help her father catch her killer and protect her family before she can finally move on.