A Book to Melt Your Heart This Winter
"You want to fix what hurts the moment it starts hurting, but this time you're going to have to embrace the slowness of healing."
Loss and healing are at the very center of Susan Meissner's newest novel, As Bright As Heaven, and as much as the story tore my heart out and stomped on it, it then proceeded to sew it back up and make it whole again.
The story revolves around the Bright family and their move to Philadelphia not long before the Spanish Influenza of 1918, which took out tens of thousands of people in Philadelphia alone; tens of millions worldwide.
It's hard to say much in case I reveal parts of the story that should be left for the reader to discover for him/her/themselves. There is so much good here. So much wonderful storytelling. It is indeed a hefty book, coming in at around 400 pages, but this feels like a necessary length to get all the Brights' stories out completely.
I grew to adore all the Brights (even little Willa, self-centered as she was) because they all suffered so greatly, yet none of them gave up on living. Certainly hope was lost, how can it not in such dire times as a pandemic that's wiping your friends and family out left right and center? But the continuation of life and determination to not stop, even when you feel like there is no other choice, was a main theme in As Bright As Heaven.
This is a beautiful, heartwarming story. Thank you so much to BookishFirst, the publishers and the author for a chance to read this in advance.
Loss and healing are at the very center of Susan Meissner's newest novel, As Bright As Heaven, and as much as the story tore my heart out and stomped on it, it then proceeded to sew it back up and make it whole again.
The story revolves around the Bright family and their move to Philadelphia not long before the Spanish Influenza of 1918, which took out tens of thousands of people in Philadelphia alone; tens of millions worldwide.
It's hard to say much in case I reveal parts of the story that should be left for the reader to discover for him/her/themselves. There is so much good here. So much wonderful storytelling. It is indeed a hefty book, coming in at around 400 pages, but this feels like a necessary length to get all the Brights' stories out completely.
I grew to adore all the Brights (even little Willa, self-centered as she was) because they all suffered so greatly, yet none of them gave up on living. Certainly hope was lost, how can it not in such dire times as a pandemic that's wiping your friends and family out left right and center? But the continuation of life and determination to not stop, even when you feel like there is no other choice, was a main theme in As Bright As Heaven.
This is a beautiful, heartwarming story. Thank you so much to BookishFirst, the publishers and the author for a chance to read this in advance.