In a book club and starting to plan your reads for next year? Check out our 2025 picks.

Beyond the Book: Background information when reading Heaven Lake

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reading Guide |  Reviews |  Beyond the Book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

Heaven Lake by John Dalton

Heaven Lake

by John Dalton
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus:
  • First Published:
  • Apr 1, 2004, 451 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Mar 2005, 464 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About This Book

Beyond the Book

This article relates to Heaven Lake

Print Review

John Dalton was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, the youngest of seven children. Upon graduation from college, he received a plane ticket to travel around the world, and so began an enduring interest in travel and foreign culture. During the late 1980s he lived in Taiwan for several years and traveled in Mainland China and other Asian countries. 

A few months after arriving in Taiwan he was propositioned by a man willing to pay him $10,000 if he traveled to the mainland, married a woman and brought her back with him. He didn't take him up on the offer!

News: Last week, Dalton was awarded the 1st prize for fiction in Barnes and Nobel's 12th annual Discover New Writers Awards.  

He tells me that he's currently working on a new novel, the first half of which is set in 1975 in the Missouri Ozarks, at a summer camp for what was then termed the mentally retarded.  The book is still in the early stages, so no publication date as yet.

Interesting Link: 
Information about, and pictures of Heaven Lake, at John Dalton's website
.

Filed under

This article relates to Heaven Lake. It first ran in the March 16, 2005 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket
    The House of Doors
    by Tan Twan Eng
    Every July, I take on the overly ambitious goal of reading all of the novels chosen as longlist ...
  • Book Jacket: The Puzzle Box
    The Puzzle Box
    by Danielle Trussoni
    During the tumultuous last days of the Tokugawa shogunate, a 17-year-old emperor known as Meiji ...
  • Book Jacket
    Something, Not Nothing
    by Sarah Leavitt
    In 2020, after a lifetime of struggling with increasingly ill health, Sarah Leavitt's partner, ...
  • Book Jacket
    A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens
    by Raul Palma
    Raul Palma's debut novel A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens introduces Hugo Contreras, who came to the ...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

Choose an author as you would a friend

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

H I O the G

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.