The Stranger in the Lifeboat: A Novel

by Mitch Albom

Overview

#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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062888341
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	11/02/2021
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	684
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Mitch Albom is the author of numerous books of fiction and nonfiction, which have collectively sold more than forty million copies in forty-seven languages worldwide. He has written seven number-one New York Times bestsellers – including Tuesdays with Morrie, the bestselling memoir of all time, which topped the list for four straight years – award-winning TV films, stage plays, screenplays, a nationally syndicated newspaper column, and a musical. 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 is the recipient of the 2010 Red Smith Award for lifetime achievement. After bestselling memoir Finding Chika and “Human Touch,” the weekly serial written and published online in real-time to raise funds for pandemic relief, his latest work is a return to fiction with The Stranger in the Lifeboat (Harper, November 2021). He founded and oversees SAY Detroit, a consortium of nine different charitable operations in his hometown, including a nonprofit dessert shop and food product line to fund programs for Detroit’s most underserved citizens. He also operates an orphanage in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, which he visits monthly. He lives with his wife, Janine, in Michigan. Learn more at www.mitchalbom.com, www.saydetroit.org, and www.havefaithaiti.org.

Hometown:

Franklin, Michigan

Date of Birth:

May 23, 1958

Place of Birth:

Passaic, New Jersey

Education:

B.A., Brandeis University, 1979; M.J., Columbia University, 1981; M.B.A., Columbia University, 1982

Editorial Reviews

Mitch Albom sees the magical in the ordinary.

Cecelia Ahern

A fearless explorer of the wishful and magical.

James McBride

He writes like a literary Spielberg: with great impact and emotion, and without being afraid of pathos.

Brigitte (Germany)

Think of Mitch Albom as the Babe Ruth of popular literature, hitting the ball out of the park every time he’s at bat.

Time

Albom has the ability to make you cry in spite of yourself.

Boston Globe

Albom’s gift for plucking heartstrings and finding meaning in life, which has endeared him to millions, is on full display.

Booklist

07/01/2021

Adrift for three days after a shipboard explosion and running low on food and water, nine people on a raft pull a floundering man on board, with one proclaiming, "Thank the Lord we found you." "I am the Lord," responds the rescued man, launching the mega-best-selling Albom's newest excursion into spiritual questions. The story is pieced together a year later from a notebook found on an empty raft that's drifted ashore on the island of Montserrat. With a one-million-copy first printing.

Library Journal

2021-08-18
An inspirational novel about a disaster and an answered prayer by the author of The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003).

What if you call out for the Lord and he actually appears before you? 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. Among them is Benji, a deckhand who narrates the ordeal in a notebook while they desperately hope for rescue. Lambert is a caricature of a greedy capitalist pig who thinks only of himself and his lost ship and mocks Benji as “scribble boy,” but the main character is a young stranger pulled out of the water. “Well, thank the Lord we found you,” a woman tells him. “I amthe Lord,” he whispers in reply. Imagine the others’ skepticism: If you’re not lying, then why won’t you save us? Why don’t you answer our prayers? I always answer people’s prayers, he replies, “but sometimes the answer is no.” Meanwhile, the ship’s disappearance is big news as searchers scour the vast ocean in vain. The lost survivors are surrounded by water and dying of thirst, “a grim reminder of how little the natural world cares for our plans.” Out of desperation, one person succumbs to temptation and drinks ocean water—always a bad mistake. Another becomes shark food. The Lord says that for him to help, everyone must accept him first, and Lambert, for one, is having none of it. The storyline and characters aren’t deep, but they’re still entertaining. A disaffected crew member might or might not have sunk the ship with limpet mines. 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? Or is faith a sucker’s bet? Lord knows.

Unanswerable questions wrapped inside a thought-provoking yarn.

Kirkus Reviews

Think of Mitch Albom as the Babe Ruth of popular literature, hitting the ball out of the park every time he’s at bat.” — Time

“Albom allows meaning, whether his own or the reader’s, to emerge with a quiet, confident grace.” — Publishers Weekly

“A fearless explorer of the wishful and magical.” — James McBride, author of The Color of Water

“Albom has the ability to make you cry in spite of yourself.” — Boston Globe

“Albom’s gift for plucking heartstrings and finding meaning in life, which has endeared him to millions, is on full display.” — Booklist

“He writes like a literary Spielberg: with great impact and emotion, and without being afraid of pathos.” — Brigitte (Germany)

“Mitch Albom sees the magical in the ordinary.” — Cecilia Ahern , author of PS, I Love You

From the Publisher

Think of Mitch Albom as the Babe Ruth of popular literature, hitting the ball out of the park every time he’s at bat.

Time

Albom’s gift for plucking heartstrings and finding meaning in life, which has endeared him to millions, is on full display.

Booklist