Heaven Indiana

One hot week in August 1954 in Heaven Indiana a baby is delivered twice: once in a barn by her grandfather the second time to the tent door of a carnival fortune-teller by her grandmother Helen. The baby Nadja becomes part of a long tradition of well-kept secrets in the tiny town of her birth. She grows up traveling with her adoptive grandmother the fortune-teller learning to develop her own gifts of precognition reading the remains of lunches and dinners to see what lies ahead in her clients lives.Meanwhile two other girls born in Heaven that same year are growing to maturity. Ellie Denson waits tables at Claras Kitchen and searches maps in her spare time haunted by powerful urges to be Somewhere Else. Sue Ellen Sue Tipton marries her high school sweetheart and happily takes on the role of the town hairdresser keeping herself informed on the latest in permanent waves and gossip some of which revolves around Helens temporary insanity and Lesters numerous affairs.In spite of the penchant Heavens denizens have for quietly getting into each others business a great many secrets manage to remain hidden stuffed into apron pockets tucked into attic trunks locked into desk drawers. When Nadjas Granny decides to retire in Heaven their reappearance in town begins to tease a number of these stories out into the open with results that really give the town something to talk about. The stories emerge against the backdrop of Indianas larger history of secrets ranging from pre-Civil War anti-slavery societies to post-Reconstruction Klan activities.Heaven Indiana weaves the subtle humor and muted manners of the Hoosier State together with its sometimes foolish and sometimes devastating legacy of secrets to trace how Ellie Denson does finally manage to leave and Nadja does finally truly get to come home.Named to Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2018; 2018 winner LGBT category American Fiction Award.