The Ghosts of Heaven
On sale
5th March 2015
Price: £7.99
Costa Children's Book Award, 2014
Shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2016, this mesmerising and mysterious novel by Printz Award-winning author Marcus Sedgwick is written in four cleverly interlinked parts and can be read in 24 different ways. Spanning thousands of years, The Ghosts of Heaven can tell us a secret as old as time, about survival, discovery, and the effect of the spiral – a symbol that has no end – on all our lives.
It’s there when a girl walks through the forest, the moist green air clinging to her skin. There centuries later in a pleasant green dale, hiding the treacherous waters of Golden Beck that take Anna, who they call a witch. There on the other side of the world, where a mad poet watches the waves and knows the horrors they hide, and far into the future as Keir Bowman realises his destiny. Each takes their next step in life. None will ever go back to the same place. The spiral has existed as long as time has existed. Follow the ways of infinity to discover its meaning.
It’s there when a girl walks through the forest, the moist green air clinging to her skin. There centuries later in a pleasant green dale, hiding the treacherous waters of Golden Beck that take Anna, who they call a witch. There on the other side of the world, where a mad poet watches the waves and knows the horrors they hide, and far into the future as Keir Bowman realises his destiny. Each takes their next step in life. None will ever go back to the same place. The spiral has existed as long as time has existed. Follow the ways of infinity to discover its meaning.
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Reviews
The book has an overarching theme of the spiral. Marcus Sedgwick is exceptionally clever in his writing, something which was made apparent with his previous book She Is Not Invisible (If you haven't read that please do so. Now.) and something that is reinforced in this book. There are many little tidbits that if you aren't playing close attention you will miss, but that's not to say it's a hard book to read. I really enjoyed the theme and what it stood for, how it affected the different characters I met.
Marcus Segwick's writing is amazing. Each story completely takes you in. They are gems in their own right but then they also work together tomake this book... I still can't find the right words. Just wow. The Ghosts of Heaven is without a doubt one of the best books I've read this year!
I like that Marcus Sedgwick takes risks and is always trying to broaden his appeal to a wider readership. The Ghosts of Heaven is fascinating, tragic, and utterly compelling.
Each story reflects the last and also adds meaning to the story that follows. Sedgwick's writing is easy to comprehend yet is also heavily textured. Key elements in each story resonate throughout the work, and common themes emerge naturally. This is a lesson in perception and meaning and though more learned readers may find some of the plotlines a little bit too obvious, it's still an extremely enjoyable journey, and one that should fascinate mature minds of all ages.
Teenage readers who like their books to have ambition will find much to admire in Marcus Sedgwick's The Ghosts of Heaven, whose recurring motif is the idea of a spiral, which addresses the meaning of life.
This theme [what makes a person who they are] is also examined with grace and thoughtfulness by Marcus Sedgwick in Ghosts of Heaven. Sedgwick's writing is human and gripping. Another one for the fireside, and it will plant questions in any teenager's mind.
...evokes vivid characters, trigger ideas and add up to sophisticated and sometimes disturbing exploration of our response to the unknown.
A startlingly original novel with a strong concept link to the motif of a spiral. A hugely ambitious work.
The Ghosts of Heaven is an excellent book that will open up new avenues of thought and future reading and introduces teenage readers to a more inventive understanding of storytelling. The Ghosts of Heaven is a book teens are likely to remember as a pivotal reading experience.
It's an intelligent, ambitious and hugely satisfying novel showing that there's no need to stick with simple for young adult fiction.
Marcus Sedgwick's beguiling novel about human longing, The Ghosts of Heaven, is a triumph... The four stories in themselves are engrossing and fluently written but what makes this book something special is that, as a whole, it is also a beguiling and philosophical account of human longing and the unknown.
Marcus Sedgwick is the kind of author you utterly love and find annoying at the same time. Mainly because he's so incredibly clever and smart that is on another level that you can't believe he manages to pull off these great stories every time; and yet he does... They're tales of the odd and slightly unexplained with a sense of sorrow lingering around them. Marcus Sedgwick is Poe for this generation as he weaves tales that make you want to lock your doors when your alone.
If anyone ever suggests to you that science and art (or philosophy) don't go together, give them this book! Four fabulous stories from different time frames linked by the natural constant of the spiral. From pre-history to the distant future there are spirals and humans longing to make sense of them. This really does have to be the book of the year.
Ghosts of Heaven is a return to Sedgwick's talent for interlocking stories and symbols last seen in his 2012 novel Midwinterblood. It's an intelligent, ambitious and hugely satisfying novel showing that there's no need to stick with simple for young adult fiction.