The Stranger in the Lifeboat: A Novel

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I just finished this book and found your review through Carla’s blog (she commented on my review on The Well Read Fish). The part that hit me the most was Eddie wanting his wife to appear as her sickest while dying of a disease. 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.

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. And whether the raft’s occupants survive seems beside the point—does a higher power exist that may pluck believers like Benji safely from the sea?When three days pass, the travelers come across a lone man in the ocean, and pull him into their lifeboat as well, saving him from the waves. May you never find yourself in a situation so dire as being stranded on a life raft in the middle of the ocean.

I like to believe in energy, in a form of Karma: the good that we do and send out eventually comes back to us; likewise for the bad or evil that we let loose out into the world with our thoughts, words and actions. Over the years, I have read many of Mitch Albom’s books and so I was looking forward to reading The Stranger in the Lifeboat.This is not a spoiler, but it is interesting that God is supposed to be in the boat and people are trying to deal with why God won’t save them from the boat. 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. Albom is the author of numerous books of fiction and nonfiction, which have collectively sold more than forty million copies in forty-eight languages worldwide. He represented the wealth and privilege Benji did not have, and he resented that it cost his wife's life, because he couldn't afford her medical treatments. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development.

The novel opens with an unspecified number of people helping an unnamed young man onto a boat in an unnamed location. Albom cites a handful of people in his life for inspiring parts of the answers to these questions, including his late Detroit pastor.

The explosion had come during a dinner party, and the sight of most of us in dress clothes, now soaked and ripped as we huddled inside a raft, was a grim reminder of how little the natural world cares for our plans. In spite of that, it was still interesting, and I understand the main point of the book = "god" is always with you, and deceased loved ones spirits continue on in "heaven. Through his work at the Detroit Free Press, he was inducted into both the National Sports Media Association and Michigan Sports halls of fame and was the recipient of the Red Smith Award for lifetime achievement.

I think each person will take something different from this book and might find multiple themes to connect with personally. If nothing else, this book has made me understand that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years. Days after billionaire Jason Lambert’s luxury yacht Galaxy suddenly sinks in the North Atlantic with many illustrious passengers aboard, a few survivors float in a life raft.In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. I suspect that I may have to come back to edit this review with more thoughts on this gripping story.