The Stranger in the Lifeboat, Written and Narrated by Mitch Albom

Published November 2nd 2021 by HarperAudio

4.5 Stars:

The Stranger in the Lifeboat is a story that I enjoyed, but I find it very difficult to write this review. It is a book that I find you will either love or not like much at all. A wealthy man has brought together many affluent people from different walks of life onto his luxury yacht/ship when it explodes killing all but a group of survivors in a lifeboat. One of the survivors claims to be the Lord, who has come to them because they called him. He can only save them if they all truly believe in him. What transpires is an extremely interesting story. One of the survivors is Benji, one of the crew who keeps a daily journal about their experience. He also suffers from survivor’s guilt. The journal is found a year later on the abandoned and empty lifeboat. This journal affects the man who found it in profound ways.

Mitch Albom has written many books discussing and examining the concept of “faith.” If nothing else, he has people talking about it, examining their own faith journey and beliefs and asking questions. I really enjoyed this book as it made me think a lot about my beliefs and faith. I am a Christian, but it doesn’t mean I don’t have questions. I don’t know if this is really a review of this book, but it is one that I have talked about and recommended to others. It is a relatively quick book and would be great for a book for book clubs as I think it is one that needs to be discussed to be truly enjoyed. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Mitch Albom, and I definitely enjoyed experiencing the book in this way.

I would like to suggest you check out Carol’s review of The Stranger in the Lifeboat, at The Reading Ladies. She did an amazing job describing her feelings and reflections while reading.

The Stranger in the Lifeboat

About the Book: 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 and inspiring novel yet.

Albom has written of heaven in the celebrated number one best sellers 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? What might the Lord look, sound, and act like?

In The Stranger in the Lifeboat, Albom keeps us guessing until the end: Is this strange and quiet man really who he claims to be? What actually happened to cause the explosion? Are the survivors already 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 later 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.

author Mitch Albom

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 http://www.mitchalbom.com, http://www.saydetroit.org, and http://www.havefaithaiti.org.

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