The Lovely Bones cover art

The Lovely Bones

the inspiration for the blockbuster film starring Saoirse Ronan

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Lovely Bones

By: Alice Sebold
Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Only £0.99 a month for the first 3 months. Pay £0.99 for the first 3 months, and £8.99/month thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Start my membership

About this listen

A haunting and heartbreaking novel narrated from heaven as a young girl watches over her family and killer.

My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.

In heaven, Susie Salmon can have whatever she wishes for – except what she most wants, which is to be back with the people she loved on earth.

In the wake of her murder, Susie watches as her happy suburban family is torn apart by grief; as her friends grow up, fall in love, and do all the things she never had the chance to do herself. But as Susie will come to realize, even in death, life is not quite out of reach . . .

An astonishing novel about life and death, memory and forgetting, and finding light in the darkest places.

Alice Sebold's book inspired the Peter Jackson film, starring Susan Sarandon and Saoirse Ronan.

'Moving and compelling . . . I sat down in the morning to read the first couple of pages; five hours later, I was still there, book in hand, transfixed' – Maggie O'Farrell (author of The Marriage Portrait), Sunday Telegraph

©2002 Alice Sebold; (P)2002 Recorded Books LLC
 Coming of Age Crime Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Mystery Fiction Crime Suspense Heartfelt Tear-jerking

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Virgin Suicides cover art
The Time Traveler's Wife cover art
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes cover art
My Sister's Keeper cover art
The Singing Bone cover art
A Child Called 'It' cover art
The Perks of Being a Wallflower cover art
After Life cover art
Ruritanian Rogues: Volumes 1-3 cover art
Bad Boy Series: 3-Book Collection cover art
Second Shot cover art
Flowers in the Attic cover art
The Berlin Zookeeper cover art
The Tenth Circle cover art
A Wolf at the Table cover art
The Sadness of Beautiful Things cover art

Critic reviews

Moving and compelling . . . It will put an imperceptible but stealthily insistent hold on you. I sat down in the morning to read the first couple of pages; five hours later, I was still there, book in hand, transfixed (Maggie O'Farrell)
Spare, beautiful and brutal prose . . . The Lovely Bones is compulsive enough to read in a single sitting, brilliantly intelligent, elegantly constructed and ultimately intriguing
Takes the stuff of terrible tragedy and transforms it into something hopeful and redemptive
[Sebold] has created a novel that is painfully fine and accomplished, one which readers will have their own difficulties relinquishing, long after the last page is turned
A chilling juxtaposition of innocence against evil
Sebold has given us a fantasy-fable of great authority, charm, and daring. She's a one-of-a-kind writer (Jonathan Franzen)
All stars
Most relevant
There were moments when i ached with sadness and regret but then islands of hope appeared and life moved on as it must.
Maybe not a truely gripping read but it held me all the way to the end 'i hope you have a long and happy life'

All we have is time

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Enjoyed the book, did end a little quick for me and ending seemed rushed, but well worth a listen! ☺️ excellent

Really profound effect on me

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Interesting reading, a bit distressing at times and with some beautiful moments. Not my favourite audibook but worth reading.

Worth reading

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This audio book brought tears to my eyes. I listened to it soon after my Grandpa died and like to think of him looking down like Suzie Salmon.

Its very sad and tells the story of a young girl who is killed, and has to come to terms with being dead while watching her family trying to move on with out her there.

It is writen very well and the narrator reads it beautifuly.

Really sad and moving

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Was easy to follow, had me gripped. Although, the narrator's English accent was poor, and the notification of a new chapter seemed to be said quite abruptly.

A story of grief

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews