What do you think?
Stealing Heaven
Liz Miller has returned to the Yorkshire town of Whitby after eighteen years away, to help her elder sister Kate dismantle the family home following their mother's death.
Liz has spent the years living a bohemian existence in Paris, Dublin and Boston, while sensible Kate is a university lecturer, married with a teenage daughter.
The sisters are uneasy with one another, each trying to disguise the fact that her life is less than happy.
Liz is fleeing from a failed relationship, while Kate is reluctant to admit that her husband is having an affair and that her daughter has been suspended from school for taking drugs.
And there's another secret, buried deep in the past, which neither sister wishes to confront...
This rich and compelling novel tells the story of two very different women coming to terms with their shared past and making stark choices about the future.
'A moving story of choices and regrets.' - Holly Kinsella, best-selling author of 'Uptown Girl'.
Heather Ingman is the best-selling author of seven novels. Two, including STEALING HEAVEN, have been translated into German. She has lived in Scotland, France and Ireland and is currently Adjunct Professor in the School of English, Trinity College, Dublin. Her teaching and academic interests focus on women's fiction. Her academic publications include WOMEN'S INTER-WAR FICTION (Edinburgh University Press, 1998), A HISTORY OF THE IRISH SHORT STORY (Cambridge University Press) and IRISH WOMEN'S
FROM EDGEWORTH TO ENRIGHT (Irish Academic Press, 2013)
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.
Liz has spent the years living a bohemian existence in Paris, Dublin and Boston, while sensible Kate is a university lecturer, married with a teenage daughter.
The sisters are uneasy with one another, each trying to disguise the fact that her life is less than happy.
Liz is fleeing from a failed relationship, while Kate is reluctant to admit that her husband is having an affair and that her daughter has been suspended from school for taking drugs.
And there's another secret, buried deep in the past, which neither sister wishes to confront...
This rich and compelling novel tells the story of two very different women coming to terms with their shared past and making stark choices about the future.
'A moving story of choices and regrets.' - Holly Kinsella, best-selling author of 'Uptown Girl'.
Heather Ingman is the best-selling author of seven novels. Two, including STEALING HEAVEN, have been translated into German. She has lived in Scotland, France and Ireland and is currently Adjunct Professor in the School of English, Trinity College, Dublin. Her teaching and academic interests focus on women's fiction. Her academic publications include WOMEN'S INTER-WAR FICTION (Edinburgh University Press, 1998), A HISTORY OF THE IRISH SHORT STORY (Cambridge University Press) and IRISH WOMEN'S
FROM EDGEWORTH TO ENRIGHT (Irish Academic Press, 2013)
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 2, 2011
Kate and Liz were brought up in the small seaside town of Whitby, and Liz couldn't wait to get away as soon as she left school. They haven't met up in eighteen years and it is not until their mother dies and the house needs to be sold that they finally see one another again. It is clear that their relationship is strained. Kate feels as though she has had to be the sensible sister, not moving far from Whitby, supporting her artist husband Duncan and dealing with her wayward daughter Perida. Liz's life has also not turned out as she wanted, she's worked as an escort, been turned off men, is a failed poet and her partner Louise has dumped her for another woman.
The sisters are uneasy in each other's company, each of them have issues that are unresolved and it is clear that they have hurt each other in the past.
As they clear their mother's attic they come across a trunk of old letters and notebooks. These belong to their grandmother Laura, who they believe died in 1925. It becomes clear when they investigate further that they have been lied to for many years. Laura was accused of murdering their grandfather and her diaries reveal that she was a victim of domestic violence. The sisters put aside their differences to investigate what really happened all those years ago, and it is then that they discover so much about their family, things that explain and add to their own characters and experiences.
Stealing Heaven is a slow-paced story, that gently unfolds into a great story. Whitby itself is a central character of the book, and anyone that is familiar with the town should especially enjoy this novel. As Liz explores the town, walking along the West Cliff, through the whalebone arch, along St Hilda's Terrace, I could see each place clearly in my mind which only added to the book. This is a story of family secrets, of relationships, of bohemian writers, of l esbianism - full of colourful characters and wonderful descriptions. I enjoyed this gently paced but fascinating novel.
The sisters are uneasy in each other's company, each of them have issues that are unresolved and it is clear that they have hurt each other in the past.
As they clear their mother's attic they come across a trunk of old letters and notebooks. These belong to their grandmother Laura, who they believe died in 1925. It becomes clear when they investigate further that they have been lied to for many years. Laura was accused of murdering their grandfather and her diaries reveal that she was a victim of domestic violence. The sisters put aside their differences to investigate what really happened all those years ago, and it is then that they discover so much about their family, things that explain and add to their own characters and experiences.
Stealing Heaven is a slow-paced story, that gently unfolds into a great story. Whitby itself is a central character of the book, and anyone that is familiar with the town should especially enjoy this novel. As Liz explores the town, walking along the West Cliff, through the whalebone arch, along St Hilda's Terrace, I could see each place clearly in my mind which only added to the book. This is a story of family secrets, of relationships, of bohemian writers, of l esbianism - full of colourful characters and wonderful descriptions. I enjoyed this gently paced but fascinating novel.
July 27, 2011
My fiance picked this up at a second hand bookshop and was basically attracted to the fact it was set in Whitby.
I'm not entirely sure how to review this book. I didn't hate it. I kept reading because it was very readable. It wasn't boring - it was just bad. The writing was clunky, the plot predictable and parts of it were, errrm, lovingly adopted from Wide Sargasso Sea. I'd guessed by about the third page what the 'big secret' that wasn't revealed until the last few chapters was. The alternate plot involving the discovery of diaries of the main characters' grandmother and the subsequent visit to Paris felt enormously shoe-horned in, even though they were the most readable parts of the book. All in all, this is not really a book worth reading.
I'm not entirely sure how to review this book. I didn't hate it. I kept reading because it was very readable. It wasn't boring - it was just bad. The writing was clunky, the plot predictable and parts of it were, errrm, lovingly adopted from Wide Sargasso Sea. I'd guessed by about the third page what the 'big secret' that wasn't revealed until the last few chapters was. The alternate plot involving the discovery of diaries of the main characters' grandmother and the subsequent visit to Paris felt enormously shoe-horned in, even though they were the most readable parts of the book. All in all, this is not really a book worth reading.
July 27, 2012
The two story strands in this novel didn't really gel and the surprise at the end was entirely predictable. Characters, especially the men, were barely credible; totally weak or overbearing. It was only saved by its portrayal of the relationship between sisters, and its warm descriptions of Wbitby.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews