The First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Alborn - review

‘Instead of viewing the world in black and white, this book subtly encourages you to view the world in colour’

The book is about residents in a small town who start receiving phone calls from the afterlife. It gains widespread attention with people being intrigued and suspicious, as many are unsure about whether these phone calls are a miracle or a massive hoax. It is not long before Sully Harding, a single father, finds out the truth behind these mysterious phone calls.

This book was fantastic in the way the writer cleverly explored the different people who were experiencing these phone calls or who were suspicious of them. It was extremely effective in the way he would begin writing about one character and then move onto the next character by leaving a cliff hanger with the previous character. His continuation of this throughout this novel made it extremely engaging and encouraged your desire for wanting to know more.

To be honest, I am not particularly interested in books that focus on religious ideas and ones that attempt to enlighten you. However, despite this book focusing strongly on God and miracles, it withheld many objective views and cleverly embedded mystery, shock and pathos. If you are someone who enjoys a good mystery being solved, then this book is perfect for you.

This book further provoked such questions as is there life after you die? Are there such things as miracles? Are humans so narrow-minded, that even the slightest sign that God and heaven is real we immediately think it’s a hoax and that there must be a reasonable explanation for it?

As a result of it containing many philosophical questions, it encouraged me to think more widely and intensely about life and death. I don’t normally bother to think more deeply about these two things, as I don’t really see the point. I mean knowing about what happens after death is not going to stop me from dying, so what difference would it make if I knew what happens?

Instead of viewing the world in black and white, this book subtly encourages you to view the world in colour. And once you view the world in colour, well you have to read this book to find out what it feels like.

• Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop

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