Sweet Lamb of Heaven

Sweet Lamb of Heaven

Lydia Millet

#3175 of 8,085 books · #260 in Horror

Shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction (2016).

Sweet Lamb of Heaven was longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction. Blending domestic thriller and psychological horror, this compelling page-turner follows a mother fleeing her estranged husband. Sweet Lamb of Heaven is a first-person account of a young mother, Anna, fleeing her cold and unfaithful husband, a businessman who's just launched his first campaign for political office. When Ned chases Anna and their six-year-old daughter from Alaska to Maine, the two go into hiding in a run-down motel on the coast. But the longer they stay, the less the guests in the dingy motel look like typical tourists—and the less Ned resembles a typical candidate. As his pursuit of Anna and their child moves from threatening to criminal, Ned begins to alter his wife's world in ways she never could have imagined. A double-edged and satisfying story with a strong female protagonist, a thrilling plot, and a creeping sense of the apocalyptic, Sweet Lamb of Heaven builds to a shattering ending with profound implications for its characters—and for all of us.