Sweet Lamb of Heaven

Blending domestic thriller and psychological horror, this compelling page-turner follows a mother fleeing her estranged husband.

Lydia Millet’s chilling new novel is the first-person account of a young mother, Anna, escaping 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.

"Pulitzer Prize–finalist Millet’s latest novel (following Mermaids in Paradise) begins with Anna and her six year old daughter Lena leaving Alaska while on the run from her husband Ned. The bad news is that sociopathic Ned doesn’t give up so easily: despite years of neglecting Lena and cheating on Anna he’s got his eyes set on an Alaska state senator seat and he needs Anna and Lena to fill the roles of loving wife and daughter. Anna and Lena hole up at a shoddy Maine motel which soon fills up with other seemingly normal folks. But Anna is always on guard a quality amplified ever since Lena was born and Anna began hearing a voice (which recites Woody Guthrie lyrics as well as poems dictionaries and textbooks). When Ned shows up and threatens Anna she must figure out a way protect Lena and herself. Anna’s touching relationship with Lena strongly contrasts her dislike of Ned and Millet weaves a satisfying cat and mouse game between the estranged couple. Her novel reads like top notch psychological suspense with an emphasis on the psychological: Anna’s paranoia is smartly given an additional possibly supernatural dimension with the unknown voice which becomes an inextricable part of her flight. This is a page turner from a very talented writer and the result is a crowd pleaser. (May)" Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

"Operating, as always, on multiple levels with artistic panache, emotional precision, and profound intent, Millet transforms a violent family conflict into a war of cosmic proportions over nothing less than life itself." Donna Seaman, Booklist

'A peculiar, stirring thriller....Millet has a knack for planting plainspoken, world-weary narrators in otherworldly circumstances, and Anna is one of her sharpest, most intriguingly philosophical creations." Kirkus Reviews

"[P]repare to be surprised by more than plot twists....the Pulitzer finalist’s philosophical fireworks add layers of energy and mystery." Boris Katchka, Vulture

"[A] hypnotic novel of psychological and philosophical suspense." O Magazine

"Millet's prose is stunning…you'll have a hard time putting this down." Isabella Biedenharn, Entertainment Weekly

"Lydia Millet is not as popular as she should be. This novel will change that…Her ambitious new novel, Sweet Lamb of Heaven, is part fast-paced thriller, part quiet meditation on the nature of God." Lisa Zeidner, Washington Post

"[A]n extraordinary metaphysical thriller from one of America’s most inventive novelists." Laura Miller, Slate

"[W]e have a real thriller on our hands…part of a higher-stakes game being played by Millet, one that will ultimately, unabashedly touch on time, beauty, horror, God, demons and the very nature of being. By novel's end…the stakes have been raised through the roof." Laird Hunt, Los Angeles Times

"Sweet Lamb of Heaven confounded me, delightfully so…I have little patience with literary novels that claim to have the propulsive momentum of a thriller, yet Millet pulls it off…It is Anna's voice—cool, intelligent, passionate, contradictory—that makes this novel so affecting…[H]ow I missed it when it was gone, how I yearned for it to speak to me again." Laura Lippman, New York Times Book Review

Lydia Millet is the author of the novels Sweet Lamb of Heaven,Mermaids in Paradise, Ghost Lights (a New York Times Notable Book), Magnificence (finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize) and other books. Her story collection Love in Infant Monkeys was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. She lives outside Tucson, Arizona.