Summary
#1 New York Times Bestseller
What would happen if we called on God for help and God actually appeared? In Mitch Albom's profound new novel of hope and faith, a group of shipwrecked passengers pull a strange man from the sea. He claims to be "the Lord." And he says he can only save them if they all believe in him.
Adrift in a raft after a deadly ship explosion, ten people struggle for survival at sea. Three days pass. Short on water, food and hope, they spot a man floating in the waves. They pull him in.
"Thank the Lord we found you," a passenger says.
"I am the Lord," the man whispers.
So begins Mitch Albom's most beguiling novel yet.
Albom has written of heaven in the celebrated number one bestsellers The Five People You Meet in Heaven and The First Phone Call from Heaven. Now, for the first time in his fiction, he ponders what we would do if, after crying out for divine help, God actually appeared before us?
In The Stranger in the Lifeboat, Albom keeps us guessing until the end: Is this strange man really who he claims to be? What actually happened to cause the explosion? Are the survivors in heaven, or are they in hell? The story is narrated by Benji, one of the passengers, who recounts the events in a notebook that is discovered--a year later--when the empty life raft washes up on the island of Montserrat. It falls to the island's chief inspector, Jarty LeFleur, a man battling his own demons, to solve the mystery of what really happened.
A fast-paced, compelling novel that makes you ponder your deepest beliefs, The Stranger in the Lifeboat suggests that answers to our prayers may be found where we least expect them.
Mitch Albom was born on May 23, 1958 in Passaic, New Jersey. He received a bachelor's degree in sociology from Brandeis University in 1979 and a master's degrees in journalism and business administration from Columbia University. He is an author, a newspaper columnist for the Detroit Free Press, and a nationally syndicated radio host for ABC.
He is the author of several bestselling books including Tuesdays with Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, For One More Day, The Timekeeper, The First Phone Call from Heaven, and The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto: A Novel. Oprah Winfrey produced a television movie for ABC based on Tuesdays with Morrie that aired in 1999 and won four Emmy Awards in 2000. The Five People You Meet in Heaven and For One More Day were also turned into ABC television movies.
He has been named the #1 Sports Columnist in the Nation by the sports editors of America. During his career, he has received more than 100 writing awards from AP, UPI, Headliners Club, and National Sportswriters and Broadcasters Associations, as well as had his work appear in numerous publications, such as Sports Illustrated, GQ, Sport, The New York Times, TV Guide, and USA Today. He hosts two radio talk shows for ABC: The Mitch Albom Show and The Mitch Albom Show on the Weekend.
He has founded two charities in the metropolitan Detroit area. The Dream Fund, which allows disadvantaged children to become involved with the arts and A Time to Help, which brings volunteers together once a month to tackle various projects in Detroit, including staffing shelters, building homes with Habitat for Humanity, and operating meals on wheels programs for the elderly.
(Bowker Author Biography)
