Little Bird of Heaven

First edition
Author	Joyce Carol Oates
Country	United States
Language	English
Published	15 September 2009 Ecco Press
Media type	Print (hardback)
Pages	443 pp
ISBN	978-0-06-182983-3
OCLC	310399122
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 22
LC Class	PS3565.A8 G73 2007
Preceded by	My Sister, My Love
Followed by	A Fair Maiden

Little Bird of Heaven is a 2009 novel by Joyce Carol Oates. It is her 38th published novel. The novel is the third set in the fictional city of Sparta, NY, which was also a main setting for her two previous best-sellers We Were the Mulvaneys and The Gravedigger's Daughter.

Plot summary

Zoe Kruller, a wife and mother, is found brutally murdered. The Sparta police target two primary suspects: her estranged husband, Delray Kruller, and her longtime lover, Eddy Diehl. In turn, the Krullers' son, Aaron, and Eddy Diehl's daughter, Krista, become obsessed with each other, each believing the other's father is guilty. By the novel's end, the fated lovers, meeting again as adults, are at last ready to exorcise the ghosts of the past and come to terms with their legacy of guilt, misplaced love, and redemptive yearning.

Reception

The novel was shortlisted for the 2011 International Dublin Literary Award.^[1]