cover image Heaven is Small

Heaven is Small

Emily Schultz, Anansi, $18.95 trade paper (256p) ISBN 978-0-88784-956-5

When failed writer and divorcée Gordon Small accepts a job at Heaven Book Company as a proofreader, he needs some time to get used to the anonymous bureaucracy of the massive romance publishing house. What he gradually discovers, though, is that he's dead, as is every employee of Heaven. When Gordon comes to terms with his purgatorial state, he decides to disrupt Heaven, bring self-awareness to his colleagues, reach out to his estranged wife, and revitalize his writing career. In the process, his actions threaten to tear down the boundaries between life and the afterlife and, in the process, Schultz redefines the romance genre. Schultz's latest is a satire of office life, romance novels, and afterlife narratives. She has accomplished something quite remarkable here, deftly juggling all this social commentary and a rather blandly sympathetic protagonist with a sharp command of language. (Sept.)