Hi, Carol. I just finished this book and found your review through Carla’s blog (she commented on my review on The Well Read Fish). I’d never read Mitch Albom before and am still pretty much in awe of his storytelling ability. I definitely think this is a novel to generate discussion. The tale remains long after you finish reading it. Beginnings and endings are earthly ideas. I go on. And because I go on, you go on with me. Feeling loss is part of why you are on Earth. Through it, you appreciate the brief gift of human existence, and you learn to cherish the world I created for you. But the human form is not permanent. It was never meant to be. That gift belongs to the soul. “I know the tears you shed, Benjamin. When people leave this Earth, their loved ones always weep.” She smiled. “But I promise you, those who leave do not.” Land: This timeline is about a year after the explosion. Inspector LeFleur on the island of Montserrat gets information that an empty raft from the sunken yacht has been found. While investigating this, he finds Benji’s notebook.

In short, Mitch Albom is a wonderful human being. Read his earlier works to support him. Donate to his charities. But you can safely stay away from this book. I can’t advocate this one to anyone except maybe to readers with a highly philosophical bent of mind. I'm still scratching my head, trying to decide whether Albom succeeded in pulling the wool over the readers' eyes? Were all the passengers real? Was this in fact a concocted story - a prank, as was suggested at one point? Was Dobby the grand orchestrator of the entire disaster at sea? Or did he leave a bogus manuscript behind for Jarty LaFleur to read, for his own devious motives? I know that these thoughts will chase each other in my mind for weeks to come - and this is the sign of a good book. We may not love or enjoy all of its parts, but the sum of those parts have left us with quite a lot to think about and discuss in Mitch Albom's latest offering. Content considerations: grief, death, rememberance and refelections of a child death, suicide, dire conditionsI do have faith, though probably not the same kind Albom writes about. But still, I “get it”, I think because—at least in the grand scheme of things—faith is faith. That belief in some kind of higher power—whatever we choose to call it—is faith. But whatever you believe, Albom somehow knows how to make his readers feel it—and perhaps even find it—and that may be the something special he possesses. Whatever it is, I just hope he keeps it up as long as possible.

The News: where a reporter, Tyler Brewer, reports on and memorializes guests of the billionaire Jason Lambert’s luxury yacht, the Galaxy the night of the accident. Benji is the only person on the raft who learns that kind of belief for himself throughout the course of their survival mission. He also heals from past tragedy and learns to forgive.

Well…..this review is difficult to write! If you’ve read the book, you know! So….here’s my nonreview review!

When someone passes, Benjamin, people always ask, ‘Why did God take them?’ A better question would be ‘Why did God give them to us?’ What did we do to deserve their love, their joy, the sweet moments we shared?” Feeling loss is part of why you are on Earth. Through it, you appreciate the brief gift of human existence, and you learn to cherish the world I created for you.”Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.