The Lovely Bones Summary and Ending Explained
The Lovely Bones is narrated by Susie Salmon, a girl who was murdered at 14 in December 1973. From her own heaven she watches her family as they grieve and as her father and sister try to find out who killed her. The novel ends with the killer dead, the family changed and Susie at peace.
The killer is her neighbor, George Harvey, and the book names him early.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Author | Alice Sebold |
| Published | 2002, Little, Brown |
| Narrator | Susie Salmon, from heaven |
| Killer | George Harvey, a neighbor |
| Setting | A Pennsylvania suburb, 1973 to the late 1970s |
| Ending | Harvey dies; Susie lets go |
How does the novel begin?
Susie tells us in the first lines that she was murdered. Her neighbor George Harvey lured her to an underground den he had built in a cornfield, and killed her. The book does not dwell on the details, and the rest of the story follows what happens afterwards.
Susie watches the living from a heaven shaped by her own wishes, and she often cannot do more than observe.
↑ Back to the topHow does her family cope?
Her father Jack becomes convinced that Harvey is the killer, but the police find no proof. Her mother Abigail withdraws from the family. Her sister Lindsey and young brother Buckley grow up in the shadow of the loss.
Over time Jack's pursuit of Harvey and the strain on the marriage tear the family apart. Abigail eventually leaves, and Susie's grandmother Lynn moves in to help.
↑ Back to the topHow does Harvey come to light?
Lindsey breaks into Harvey's house to look for evidence and finds it. Harvey leaves town. Jack's health suffers during these years, and Abigail returns to the family when he is in hospital.
Susie's classmates Ruth Connors and Ray Singh, who was her first kiss, become friends through their shared feelings about her. Ruth, who sensed Susie's spirit at the moment of her death, begins to feel her presence.
↑ Back to the topHow does it end?
Years later Harvey returns to the old neighborhood. As he passes the sinkhole where Susie's body lies, Ruth and Ray are standing nearby. In that moment Susie's soul and Ruth's trade places, and Susie spends a brief time on earth with Ray before returning to heaven.
Harvey, meanwhile, is killed while stalking another girl, when he slips and falls down a ravine after an icicle breaks. Lindsey marries her boyfriend Samuel Heckler and has a child. Susie, now at peace, reflects on the lovely bones, the ties that grew up around her absence, and on letting go.
↑ Back to the topMore about The Lovely Bones
This guide covers the 2002 novel and the 2009 film. The subject matter includes the murder of a child, described without graphic detail.