How the Blessed Live

By Susannah M. Smith

Minor earthquakes every day; that's what they say. Lucy feels the tremors like a needle sensitized to respond to the slightest movement. She feels the push, the blind thrust of the earth's elastic body, pushing out, pulling in, behaving unpredictably. She lies awake at night, staring into the darkness, thinking of the tectonic plates moving against one another, building up tension, until something has to give. On an isolated island in Lake Ontario live twins Lucy and Levi and their father, Daniel. While Daniel desperately mourns for his dead wife, Levi and Lucy grow up ever more entwined in their enchanted childhood of fairy tales and rhymes. But when a fissure in the fragile cocoon of the family explodes into a chasm, each of the three is hurled in a different direction. Soon, there emerges a geographical triangle - Vancouver, Montreal, the island - that also maps out the terrain of love and the territory of family. Part Egyptian myth, part Alice in Wonderland , How the Blessed Live is an ethereally quiet, unexpected debut from a novelist to be watched.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1552451003
• ISBN13: 9781552451007
• Release Date: May 2002
• Publisher: Coach House Books
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

beautiful, haunting.

a stunningly beautiful first novel, it will haunt you long after you've read the last words.

Peace and Unrest

A captivating journey of human spirit. Poetic, haunting and uplifting, this book takes the reader into the emotions of each character, into the heart of family full of secrets and dreams.A magical read that is hard to put down. I can't wait for the author's next book.

A Remarkable First Novel

A poetic novel filled with quiet, soft secrets. Dark and Sensual with entirely captivating characters. If you like Leonard Cohen, Anne-Marie Macdonald or Yann Martel you will surely enjoy this new Canadian author's writing.

Love and Loss

The author's lyrical, fluid writing style captivated me and drew me into this story of love and loss. It touches on the universal search for meaning when dealing with the aftermath of the tragic sundering of a relationship--something we all have to deal with at some point in our lives. I found I could identify with aspects of all three central characters in their explorations of self through their relationships. This is a beautifully written novel. Ms. Smith is a writer to watch for--her best is yet to come.

Poetic and haunting...

I read Susannah M. Smith's novel over two nights and I had a difficult time putting it down. I have such a huge stack of books that I need to read, I won't finish a book if I don't think it's worth my time. This one, I couldn't stop. It doesn't read like a first novel (and if you're a real reader, you know what I mean when I say that). I know it's helpful to compare a novel to other published works but I'm not sure what to compare this one to-- in parts, it's almost poetry. The chapters are short, sad, and sweet, and the story is universal (simple and familiar, but intertwined with elements of history and myth so that it feels...new). This book is unlike anything I've read recently. The characters are well-conceived and the plot is beautiful but tragic. If you love literature and poetic writing, you'll enjoy this novel. And you'll want to buy it for your friends and family. But first, buy it for yourself. You won't be disappointed. :)