Sea: This is the perspective of the yacht survivors from the raft. Revealed through the notebook scribbles of one of the survivors named Benji. I don't consider myself a religious person at all. I do have a lot of faith and belief in a higher power though. Sometimes life is just hard so occasionally a feel-good story with an inspiring message is just what I need.

As Benji suffers in the boat, he begins to move from feeling “so tightly connected to the world you cannot imagine letting go” to one in which “you surrender to a drifting phase” and feel less connected. What’s happening in this shift? What is a healthy amount of attachment to the things of the world? A very easy book to listen to. The library bought an audio copy at my request to hear on the Overdrive app. Whoa! What a story! At first, I was afraid this might not end up being so great. The story seemed so far-fetched, but I really should have known better. Before long, that crazy story just burst into life, the tension amped up, and I was holding my breath, eyes wide as saucers. Suddenly what seemed far-fetched just a moment before now held me absolutely rapt. I don’t know how he does it, but this is my eighth Albom novel and, incredibly, they just keep getting better and better! He somehow knows how to reach our very core, touching something deep within us. Our hearts? Our souls? With mere words he’s able to tap into the innocence—that ability to suspend belief—that we all had as children. Land: This timeline is about a year after the explosion. Inspector LeFleur on the island of Montserrat gets information that an empty raft from the sunken yacht has been found. While investigating this, he finds Benji’s notebook. It’s not Albom’s most emotionally moving book, despite its lofty material, but it is a well-paced mystery that considers important theological questions. Albom cites a handful of people in his life for inspiring parts of the answers to these questions, including his late Detroit pastor.What are various ways some explain the existence of suffering and pain, respond to the profound question, “the terrible things that befall us…How does a supreme being permit them?” Dobby was angry and resentful about the ways in which “class, wealth, privilege” were at work in the world. What were the problems and dangers he was referring to?

While this story has all the elements of a “whodunnit,” the real question surfaces when they pull a 10th survivor into the lifeboat --- one claiming to be God himself. But is this bizarre, unkempt man who he claims to be? Is he, in fact, God? The question carries weight, as the man tells his fellow passengers that he will only save them once everyone aboard believes that he is who he says he is. Readers travel between land and sea with the occasional inserted news coverage. On the sea, Benji writes to his departed wife Annabelle in a notebook. On land, after the discovery of the life raft from the ship, a local inspector finds that notebook and seeks to uncover its mysteries.In some senses this, and other books from Albom, are probably rather odd to some believers and unbelievers. Within that caveat I found this a convincing story I guess. Was it an enjoyable read - yes. Was it thought provoking - maybe. I would certainly read another by this author in the future and fans of his will be very pleased by this story I think. Towards the end, when Benji mourned the death of the sea bird, his grief for his wife and his survivor's guilt (over the lives of all the others who had been lost from the lifeboat and cruise ship) completely overwhelmed him. The author was also probably trying to show that Benji is not a cruel person, for reasons that will become clear later on in the story. The interesting twist in the last third of the novel was somewhat foreseeable - but no spoilers here! Well…..this review is difficult to write! If you’ve read the book, you know! So….here’s my nonreview review! We meet these imperiled castaways drifting at sea. They were all guests or workers on a massive yacht owned by billionaire Jason Lambert. He had gathered technology pioneers, corporate leaders, glitzy celebrities and even former presidents for a week-long adventure to “spur each other to change the world” — a cruise version of Davos.