Another great book from this author. As always, it was written so well. It kept my interest and certainly gave me lots to think about. An emotional book

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Another brilliant offering by a very talented author. I just loved the People you meet in heaven, Tuesdays with Morrie, so certainly wasn't disappointed by this offering. Recommended.

I think this is probably a very powerful story of faith, and what it means to handle and accept loss…but I am definitely not it’s intended reader.

Story fell a little flat, the characters were just that, characters of people to suit the narrative and message that the author was trying to convey so I found it hard to care about anything being told to me really.

Thanks to netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a review, just sorry it’s not a more pleasant one!

Really enjoyed this book.
Very well written and great storyline. The characters were very believable too.
I would recommend this book. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers and the author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest opinion

This is a beautifully written book. I have previously read the seven people you meet in heaven, but that was a long time ago and I had forgotten how good Alboms writing is.

I would totally recommend

4.5 stars

Mitch Albom's book rarely failed me and in fact, he is my auto buy author. This book is full of lessons to be learned and it is beautiful reading. Despite of it has religion elements, readers can still take it as life lessons. It opened with a weird story but ended with a pretty one.

I am usually a big fan of Mitch Albom's work but this title was not for me and I felt disappointed by this novel.

I love Mitch Albom and this book does not fail to disappoint! Every book he writes is amazing and this is just as great! Truly amazing!

I loved Mitch Albom's first book, and I love the way he weaves in this themes within his books. I think he's a great writer.

Another thought provoking and life questioning story from Mitch Albom.

I read this book in a day and although it took me a little while to get into it, I soon found myself absorbed in the tale. This book had Life of Pi vibes, in both the story and the way it makes you question the narrators story and doubt you’re own thoughts on where the story is going.

Very enjoyable read.

Mitch Albom's The Strangers in the Lifeboat is the first book of his that I read and completely enjoyed. I can say that it's probably one of the best, emotional, puzzling books I read in 2021!

Perhaps it's gonna leave you even more clueless and makes you question what's and where's the truth is. To me, it's well crafted. The more I read, the more I fall in love with it, the more shattered I felt. To some, the story can be quite untrustworthy and it's defined on how we as readers conclude it.

Thank you NetGalley and published for granting me access to such a beautiful and tear-jerking story.

The book's chapters are broken into three different stories. Sea focuses on the survivors in the Lifeboat and is narrated by one of the survivors, Benji, who is keeping a written account of their days. Land tells the story of Inspector LeFleur who is investigating a life raft which has washed up on the shores of Montserrat. News features news reports from a reporter who was on board the yacht the night it sank.

In a Nutshell: Intriguing concept, detached implementation. Add to this a reader with zero philosophical understanding and the result is utter confusion.

Story:
Nine people (unrelated to each other) are struggling for survival on a life raft after the yacht they were cruising in exploded. Three days later, they see a man floating on the waves and they drag him in. When asked his identity, he replies, “I am the Lord.” Is he actually the Lord answering their prayers or has he just gone kooky after three days in the water? That’s for you to find out.

While Albom has never been a firm favourite of mine as such, there is still something in his writing that kept me reading his books and liking them enough. (This is based on the four books of his I have read: two fiction and two nonfiction.) He has an ability to make one think about a common occurrence from a different angle. I guess I was looking for the same to happen with this latest work too. But all I was thinking about was: what is the point he is trying to make? Maybe I am too dense because the story didn’t make much sense to me at all. (Confession: I try to avoid from philosophical or spiritual content because it mostly goes over my head. This one, I read only because of the author.)

The structure of the story was fantastic. It comes in three broad timelines with interesting titles:
1. Sea: This is the perspective of the yacht survivors from the raft. Revealed through the notebook scribbles of one of the survivors named Benji.
2. 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.
3. News: This covers the entire timeline, beginning from the departure of the yacht on its journey and continuing through the investigation of its accident and the detection of the yacht in Montserrat. This perspective also provides us with the background information of the passengers in the “Sea’ timeline.
I liked this unique way of patterning the story. Some readers might not enjoy the constant shifts in time and perspectives but I am an avid reader of historical fiction, so I am used to this kind of narrative style and even fond of it. But that’s about all I enjoyed in this book: the story structure.

If you are looking for the Mitch Albom of ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ or ‘The Five People You Meet in Heaven’, that’s not gonna happen here. The man has changed and this deeper religious turn is showing heavily in the writing. It’s almost evangelical in its essence, and that’s a direction I never enjoy, though I am a practising Christian. If I didn’t get the context nor concept of the ‘Lord” in this story, I wonder how readers of other faiths will fare. The short length is a minor saving grace.

I wanted to like this book for the author (because he is a nice person. Truly.) But that’s never a good way to evaluate a book, right? The book must stand on its own strengths, and that doesn’t happen here. The “Sea” part of the story has strong vibes of “Life of Pi” (declaration based on the movie; I haven’t read the book.) The concept was very intriguing but there are so many things left unexplained that I didn’t have enough patience to dig deep. The book tries its best to raise metaphysical questions but fails miserably in providing their answers. After turning over the last page, I was probably even more confused than at the start. The story was simply too weird, too disconnected, too stilted.

(Minor complaint: The name of the Indian character, Latha Laghari, is odd. The character is supposed to come from Bengal but neither the name nor the surname are Bengali in origin. The first name is Hindu, the last name is Muslim. I wish authors would research their character names better. I appreciate the idea of inclusivity and diverse representation but this shouldn’t come at the cost of authenticity.)


In short, Mitch Albom is a wonderful human being. Read his earlier works to support him. Donate to his charities. But you can safely stay away from this book. I can’t advocate this one to anyone except maybe to readers with a highly philosophical bent of mind.

My thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK, Sphere, and NetGalley for the ARC of “The Stranger in the Lifeboat”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

This is a fairly short book and easy to read quickly. A good job as I couldn't put it down until I'd finished it. Housework went undone, dinner was late. I just couldn't wait to see what would happen.
It's really spell-binding, intriguing and thought-provoking, as I've come to expect a Mitch Albom book to be. Think this is one of my favourites! Thanks for the ARC.

The Stranger in the Lifeboat by Mitch Albom tells the story of the aftermath of a sunken yacht, The Galaxy belonging to billionaire Jason Lambert and the few survivors in the lifeboat after they help a man on board who claims he is the Lord, here to save them if only they will all believe in him. This story is written in two main alternating timelines. The first tells Benji’s story as he writes in a notebook of the days and weeks as he alongside the Lord and remaining survivors drift across the ocean, questioning the arrival of the stranger as well as his own faith and will to survive. The second follows Jarty LeFleur, a bereaved police inspector in Montserrat in the immediate days after he discovers the lifeboat washed up on a beach, thousands of miles from the site of the sunken yacht. These Sea and Land narratives are interspersed with News reports spanning both timelines which served to add more information to the overall plot and allows the reader to learn more about the other characters on board the Galaxy.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, it had some poignant moments in relation to loss and grief as well as uplifting messages of hope and acceptance. I found the background stories of Benji and Jarty to be incredibly moving particularly as I approached the ending. This is an easy, entertaining read even for a less than light-hearted topic, it raises plenty of questions and leaves food for thought, but it’s not among my favourites of Mitch Albom’s work. Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for a digital copy for review.

This book was brilliant.  I read it within a few short hours. This book sure does pack a punch. It's totally unique and I really do recommend it. The story was so well wrote that I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through. The emotions I went through while reading this book were utterly amazing.  There is such a fascinating sense of atmosphere that will captivate the audience perfectly. You really do believe that you know whats going to happen next however, there are that many twist and turns in this book that your often left shocked by the outcome. This book left in in awe of the writing style as you just can't predict what will happen next. The characters are amazing and as you are only allowed to know snippets of their lives you are left trying to work out their motivations and the why did they do that. The ending is stunning it really was unexpected. It was so surprising and so much better that your jaw will hit the ground. Once you have finished reading this book it will leave you with a brilliant sense of satisfaction like you have read one of the best books published in 2021.
So much praise goes to the author and publishing team for creating this truly stunning book.  The above review has already been published on goodreads, waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo and amazon under ladyreading365. Also live on my blog at https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/the-stranger-in-the-lifeboat-by-mitch-albom-little-brown-book-group-5-stars

The Stranger in the Lifeboat is one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. When I was about halfway through it someone asked me what I was reading and honestly it sounded ludicrous and I felt like I couldn't do the book justice. There's an accident on a boat which leaves several strangers fighting for survival on a raft. Even so, it's such a peaceful read, best described as the best of Matt Haig and Yann Martel's Life of Pi. It brought me peace.

The Stranger in the Lifeboat is out now. Thank you so much @netgalley for the eARC in return for an honest review.

“It takes so much to make you feel big in this world. It only takes an ocean to make you feel tiny.”

Adrift in a raft after a terrible shipwreck, ten strangers try to survive while they wait for rescue. After three days, short on water, food and hope, they spot a man floating in the waves. They pull him on board and the survivor claims he can save them. But should they put their trust in him? Will any of them see home again? And why did the ship really sink?

I haven’t read any books by Mitch Albom before but have seen them often on various book groups. Requesting an ARC of his latest one was an easy choice.

To some this book may appear to veer into the subject of religion but I assure you it stays away, keeping firmly to the zone of faith. I particularly enjoyed the author’s writing style and expression. He lights up the sun, moon and stars with his words and I can’t seem to get enough of it.

At the end, this book left me with so many unanswered questions and yet I didn’t mind it at all. A beautifully raw, poignant story of pure emotion told on the edge of hope, faith and survival, this will give you much to ponder on.

This ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group, UK.

Another brilliant read from Mitch Albom, I was delighted to receive a copy of this having loved all his previous offerings but especially Five People & Frankie Presto.
I was instantly hooked on the story and couldn't put it down. Of course now I'm sorry about that as it's done and there will be a wait until the next book.
The horror of the ship sinking and the few survivors being stuck on the lifeboat was well captured and I enjoyed reading about what happened to them over the passing days having found the stranger.
I'm not religious at all, but I don't think that affected my enjoyment of the story
I enjoyed the variation of the chapters between Land and Sea, hearing from Jarty & Bertie.
Once again I felt hopeful by the end of the book and like there was a bit of Albom magic in the telling, even if it did make me ugly cry!
My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for my eARC in return for my honest review.