A few days before the end of spring term, an anonymous note arrived at The Harvard Crimson. It contained a photograph of a student and a typed message: "Keep this picture. There will soon be a very juicy story involving this woman." Now, the critically acclaimed author of The Dead Girl reveals the never-before-told story of two girls--one from Ethiopia, the other from Vietnam--for whom admission to Harvard was like "halfway heaven," the stepping stone to the American Dream that would ensure success for them and their families; and how they met instead with the darkest of all fates: a tragedy that might have been prevented. Based on Melanie Thernstrom's article in The New Yorker, here is the complete story of an unfathomable murder/suicide that shocked the country--and a groundbreaking exposÚ of one of America's most distinguished universities. Drawing on the astonishing diaries kept by the murderer, Thernstrom reconstructs the inner life of a deeply troubled girl, struggling against isolation and depression, uncannily self-aware, and desperate for help. Sifting through layers of responsibility and silence, Thernstrom has pieced together a story that points back to Harvard and its calculated efforts to whitewash the story, and to protect and promote its distinguished reputation at the cost of its own student body. A work of dazzling investigative journalism and literary pathos, Halfway Heaven raises profound questions about the nature of attachment, obsession, female friendship, and the power of loneliness to transform love into destruction. (replaced) Review Harvard prides itself on being a melting pot: the student body is 19 percent Asian, 7 percent foreigners, and more than one-third of all of the students are minorities. So when a junior from Ethiopia, Sinedu Tadesse, stabbed her roommate 45 times and then hung herself, the university came under immediate scrutiny from the press. Melanie Thernstrom approaches this tragedy with the sensitivity of someone who cares about Harvard, as an alumna and daughter of a professor, and she engages the reader with an unassuming, personal style. In the end, Halfway Heaven presents a disturbing picture of how a small, prestigious community can neglect its mentally-ill members. As quotations from Sinedu's diaries reflect all too clearly, what it takes to do well in school does not necessarily build a healthy psyche: "When I am with one person, I shake with nervousness fearing that we will run out of things to say and she or he will be bored. For math I had a teacher; for painting I had a teacher; for social life I had no one." Also recommended is Thernstrom's first book, . From Library Journal In May 1995, on the last day of their junior year at Harvard University, 20-year-old Ethiopian student Sinedu Tadesse murdered her roommate Trang Phuong Ho, a Vietnamese immigrant, and then committed suicide. The news shocked the Boston community but very quickly disappeared from view. Thernstrom, a Boston native, Harvard graduate, and journalist, began to follow the story. Trying to trace the origins of Sinedu's despair, Thernstrom traveled to Ethiopia to learn more about her life. But the reasons for the horrifying crime were all found in Sinedu's dorm room. Sinedu had kept a number of journals in which she expressed her struggles with isolation and depression. Delving further, Thernstrom was horrified to discover Harvard's lack of response in the face of Sinedu's desperate cries for help. Expanding on her New Yorker article, Thernstrom has not only written about a horrible crime but also has indicted Harvard University's fierce attempts to protect its distinguished reputation at the cost of its students.