Critical Praise

"Wiggins is one of those critically acclaimed authors whose books acquire passionate followings...[like] other southern writers who find passion to be a source of both salvation and gothic nightmare. "

——Booklist

"She writes with the staccato authority of an Uzi.... She wastes no words, thrusting scene upon scene into your face. "

——Men's Journal

"Wiggins is a writer of substantial gifts....Passion develops through hidden chains of causality, so we never know exactly where or when it's going to strike....Almost Heaven bristles with meteorological imagery -- from heat waves to hailstorms to torrential rain -- all of it related to the emotional lives of her characters. "

——The New York Times Book Review

"Wiggins writes stunningly polished prose that is both quirky and urgent, letting slip clues to both Holden's and Melanie's situations as the plot builds with a roar to the final blowout. "

——Library Journal

"A real tour de force on the immensity of human loss. "

——Library Journal

"Marianne Wiggins dares to make fictions that stand in the face of heart-cracking circumstance, fictions that, in fact, resound with hearts shattering. "

——The Washington Post Book World

"Wiggins writes with a feverish brilliance...close to prophetic brilliance. "

——Los Angeles Times Book Review