Falling to Heaven

Jeanne M. Peterson

Thomas Dunne Books

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FALLING TO HEAVEN is the story of two American Quakers who trek into Tibet in 1954.  In this work of historical fiction, Emma and Gerald Kittredge leave their secure Quaker community and travel to the Tibetan city of Shigatse where they soon find companionship with their neighbors, Dorje and Rinchen, and their small family. But the arrival of Maoist soldiers into their quiet life shatters everything. Gerald is captured by the soldiers, leaving a pregnant Emma facing an agonizing decision: flee Tibet or stay and risk imprisonment herself.  Dorje and Rinchen are her only allies, but their lives are also thrown into turmoil when their son abandons the sanctuary of his monastery to fight in the resistance. Told in three distinct voices rich in their respective spiritual traditions, FALLING TO HEAVEN is ultimately a novel about faith: losing it and rediscovering it in places you’d never expect. FALLING TO HEAVEN conjures a panoramic tale that unfolds the mysteries of an ancient and peaceful way of life.

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Falling To Heaven
Part OneMAY 24, 1954DorjeMy mother taught me how to do prostrations as soon as I could walk. Bring hands together over your head, then to your chest, then go down like Abu on all four legs, touch your forehead to the earth. Hold your love for His Holiness in your heart every moment. Abu was our little puppy, and my mother taught me prostrations in this way, with me pretending to be Abu. She brought me to the temple with her every day, teaching me how to say prayers for all sentient beings. She said to me, "Even though your father is Chinese, you will learn to be a good Tibetan.

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Praise for Falling to Heaven

"In this desperate tale of expatriates caught up in the Chinese occupation of Tibet, Jeanne Peterson captures the bitterness while keeping in touch with a more spiritual melancholy and a pulse of hope. One’s senses are flooded with tastes, smells and sounds that bring a very distant world and time to life."

Jonathan Falla, author of Blue Poppies

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About the Author

Jeanne M. Peterson

JEANNE M. PETERSON is a clinical psychologist who worked for years with survivors of torture and communist reeducation from all over Asia. In her free time she facilitates an advanced writing group for San Diego Writers Ink, where she lives with her two sons.

Jeanne Peterson

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Falling to Heaven
Jeanne M. Peterson

Hardcover

Hardcover
St. Martin's Press
Thomas Dunne Books
March 2010
Hardcover
ISBN: 9780312533922
ISBN10: 0312533926
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, 336 pages
$24.99

e-Book Agency

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e-Book Agency
St. Martin's Press
Thomas Dunne Books
March 2010
e-Book Agency
ISBN: 9781429913553
ISBN10: 142991355X
336 pages
$7.99
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