Shot in the Heart

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER

By: Mikal Gilmore

Narrated by: Michael Prichard

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • A murder tale "from inside the house where murder is born." Haunting, harrowing, and profoundly affecting, Shot in the Heart exposes and explores a dark vein of American life that most of us would rather ignore. It is a book that will leave no reader unchanged.

Gary Gilmore, the infamous murderer immortalized by Norman Mailer in The Executioner's Song, campaigned for his own death and was executed by firing squad in 1977. Writer Mikal Gilmore is his younger brother. In Shot in the Heart, he tells the stunning story of their wildly dysfunctional family: their mother, a black sheep daughter of unforgiving Mormon farmers; their father, a drunk, thief, and con man. It was a family destroyed by a multigenerational history of child abuse, alcoholism, crime, adultery, and murder.

Mikal, burdened with the guilt of being his father's favorite and the shame of being Gary's brother, gracefully and painfully relates his story "from inside the house where murder is born... a house that, in some ways, [he has] never been able to leave." Shot in the Heart is the history of an American family inextricably tied up with violence, and the story of how the children of this family committed murder and murdered themselves in payment for a long lineage of ruin.

Critic reviews

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE

"One of the most beautifully written, moving nonfiction books published in the past five years." -- Deidre Donahue, USA Today.

"Remarkable, astonishing... Shot in the Heart reads like a combination of Brothers Karamazov and a series of Johnny Cash ballads... chilling, heartbreaking, and alarming." -- Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times.

"Mesmerizing... riveting and immensely moving... Shot in the Heart is a gesture of sustained courage that just happens to be a page-turner." -- Daphne Merkin,The New Yorker.

INCREDIBLE

The emotions Mikal's writing evokes are on another level. This is such a raw and honest reflection of a family's life and all of the tragedy and beautiful memories that worked to make up the foundation of Mikal's upbringing. I highly recommend this book!

One of the best books I’ve read

I just finished the audiobook of "A Shot In The Heart" (non-fiction) and it's one of the best books I've ever read. It's a complete book: compelling and courageous writing, true crime story, meticulously researched, uncovered family secrets and many great characters, a heartbreaking memoir, very insightful and humanistic, the Mormon religion, turn-of-the-century (1900's) US historical perspective and many plot twists. I could not put it down. Highly recommend if you haven't read it.

The Rest Of The Story

I saw the 1982 made for TV movie The Executioner’s Song while I was pregnant. Maybe it was a hormonal ‘thing’ or it just plain touched my heart as it has left such a remarkable impression on me to this day. At that time I resided in a country that had eliminated capital punishment some twenty-eight years earlier. I could never imagine knowing the facts regarding the exact time and place of my death. I had so much misdirected compassion on the wrong person. That being the perpetrator of a heinous crime of two young family men.

I then read the book of the same name by Norman Mailer. I did a complete 360. It is filled with so of many details about these victims and their families but also gave me more insight into the man, Gary Gilmore. After finishing the last chapter I was still left wanting. I felt as if I had 90% of the story and I needed to know why this petty criminal coldly made two innocent men on two consecutive days to lie down on cold floors and have their lives terminated.

I then decided to read Gary’s brother’s account. Mikal Gilmore gives us a history and a follow up to the man and where his family came from. We can’t blame one’s ancestors for our ill deeds BUT perhaps we can try to conceive a full picture of a family that was destined for such a horrendous future. Gary’s desire to be put to death had so many terrible consequences as over a thousand men and women have been put to death since Gary requested to die thus ending a ten year moratorium on America’s death penalty. It was like an explosion as so many people were effected in such a detrimental way, not being least the Gilmore family itself. So many lies, so many secrets culminating in such a tragic end.

This book is a classic and the narrator was the correct choice. At first I thought that he was monotone and quite depressing but as I continued to listen I understood why. There is no humor from start to end so a voice that reflected the tone of the story was perfect.

Elevated True Crime + Memoir + History

This book is hard to define. I came to it thinking it was true crime. But it is so much more. A work of incredible breadth, beauty, and power. I cannot imagine anyone reading or listening to this work and not being moved or changed. So much pain reflected on with such grace and honesty.

Also, a great audio performance as well.

Powerful and insightful…

…this book articulates family dysfunction like nothing I’ve ever read. Tolstoy wrote that “…every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” That may be true, but Mikal Gilmore is able to describe the unique circumstances of his family dynamics in a way that will resonate with anyone who grew up in a rage-filled and violent atmosphere. I think this book should be required reading for anyone in mental health care, particularly those that work with children. This is a compelling, brilliant and heartbreaking story told by the child that “escaped”. I learned so much.