The meaning of the title and the question of religion

The "lovely bones" of the title have to do with what Sebold describes as "the architecture of loss" - - the often hard-won connections between people that are built around the absence of someone after they die.

Is it a religious book?

While reviews for "The Lovely Bones" here have been overwhelmingly positive, critics in the United Kingdom, where the book was also published last summer, have been less effusive. The Guardian newspaper scoffed that the book provides Americans with "Christian comfort."

Sebold begs to differ. "I haven't heard that from any reader. People have said it provides them with comfort, but I haven't heard anybody qualify it as 'Christian,' " she says. "You write a book about Heaven, you're gonna get it from both ends. I get people who say, 'Why isn't God in the Heaven?' who are coming from that direction. And other people are like, 'Oh, you're talking about Heaven? You must be Christian.' There's no hope. I can't do anything about that."

Sebold, who was raised in what she calls "the wishy-washy Episcopalian religion," says she hasn't been to church since she was a teenager. "My major religions are my dog and gardening."