Julie La Rochelle

As a small-town social worker investigates a commune headed by a spiritual leader calling himself Moses, she discovers a dead child, sadistic rituals, and ruthless mental and physical abuse.

Heaven is a place with crumbling ceilings, an aging Jesus, and angels and saints entertained by human sexuality. On earth, Christmas, 1999, Jacques, who's dying of cancer, meets Sophie, pregnant and abandoned. Her babies and his death are due in the spring. Jacques runs a cabaret facing bankruptcy because his landlord insists on a 15-minute speech about Jesus every evening by the boring Bernard, and all the customers leave. Jacques prays for Bernard's removal: Heaven arranges a car crash. Jacques keeps a tape recorder handy, narrating his final days, focused on composing memorable last words. In Heaven, the dead Bernard keeps watch over Jacques and Sophie, with saving effect.