News from Heaven (Haigh) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
…Ms. Haigh is one of the most subtle, incisive fiction writers currently exploring the dynamics of big, secretive families, the kinds whose members are much more apt to betray private thoughts than speak them out loud. Throughout News From Heaven, her combined gifts for piercing acuity and discreet understatement make a powerful mix…Although News from Heaven may sound full of sad situations, it's an uplifting and radiant book.... It is Ms. Haigh's great gift to make all of these people come alive and to make readers really care how their destinies unfold.
Janet Maslin - New York Times


A vibrant, thought-provoking, profoundly readable contribution to the genre.... Each of these ten linked stories represents a distinct, shining example of Haigh’s remarkable gifts for lyricism, psychological insight, and stealth humor.
Boston Globe


After her success with Baker Towers (2005), Haigh returns to the familiarity of Bakerton, Pennsylvania—the small coal mining "town of churches and bars" where "everybody knows your business"—for this short story collection that weaves through the generations of hopes, dreams, and regrets of a community.... The melancholia of these interconnected stories exude guilt, disappointment, and terminated dreams alongside a quiet strength in the memories of each former or current resident. Haigh skillfully explores a community and their conflicting sentiments of family and responsibility against desires for a future beyond the narrow scope of their hometown.
Publishers Weekly


These connected short stories, set in the coal-mining town of Bakerton, PA, span the 1940s to the present. Beautifully written and deeply moving, they feature characters whose lives have not turned out the way they had imagined.... Some episodes end painfully, but occasionally the protagonists rise up and find hope and strength amid the disappointments. All of their struggles linger in the mind. This is a masterly collection. —Evelyn Beck, Piedmont Technical Coll., Greenwood, SC
Library Journal


(Starred review.) Despite its treacly title, this collection of short stories shows depth, understanding and compassion rather than sentimentality. Most of the stories take place in or near Bakerton, Pa., populated largely by Polish and Italian Catholic immigrants.... Haigh's narratives are beautifully realized stories of heartbreak, of qualified love and of economic as well as personal depression.
Kirkus Reviews