In the nonfiction work “Have a Little Faith” (2009), Mitch Albom writes of his friendship with rabbi Albert Lewis and pastor Henry Covington and their exploration of life-and-death questions about God, heaven, faith, and love. At one point, Mr. Albom asks the pastor, “What makes a man happy?”
Ask “What makes you happy?” of Mr. Albom, and you’ll likely get the same answer he gave in a recent interview: “Children. That’s head and shoulders above everything else. When I’m not writing, I’m down in Haiti at the orphanage. Kids being happy make me happy.”
This point was underscored by the giggling, chattering, 19-month-old girl sitting in his lap throughout half of the telephone interview. In the background were the sounds of four children at play in the Albom home, all of them visitors from Haiti, all in the United States for reasons of health or education.
A philanthropist with his money and his time, musician and composer, playwright and screenwriter, former sports broadcaster: Mr. Albom is the sum of many parts. But what has brought him international renown is his books.
The Writer
In his 20s and 30s, Mr. Albom was best known for his sports writing and broadcasting. “People would call out to me in airports to ask who was going to win the Super Bowl,” he said.
That all changed beginning in 1997, when “Tuesdays with Morrie” was published. Mr. Albom’s account of the time he spent with his dying, revered professor from his university days became an international bestseller. The book also forever altered the course of Mr. Albom’s life. “It changed me because now in those airports, I stopped and listened to stories of people who were grieving and what they were going through. You realize how much sadness and suffering are in the world. You become sensitive to it, to loss and grief, and to the yearning people have for something inspiring in their lives. So, I never wrote another book about sports.”
Instead, for the last 25 years, Mr. Albom has written about some of the basic mysteries of existence. What happens when we die? What does it mean to live a good life, and what makes for a good person? Is there a God, and if so, what is the nature of that deity? Why do some people have faith and others lack it? His fictional bestsellers like “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” (2003) and “The Stranger in the Life Boat” (2021) aren’t intended as answers to these questions, but as springboards to help readers consider possibilities.
His 18 published books have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 47 languages. Clearly, Mr. Albom and the questions he raises have struck a chord with human beings around the globe.
The Next Book
And now another title has joined these ranks. The novel “The Little Liar,” set during the Holocaust, features three childhood friends, Sebastian Krispis, his younger brother Nico, and their good friend Fannie Nahmias. They grow up in Salonika, Greece, home to a majority Jewish population, when the Nazis invade Greece. In the mass arrests and deportations that follow, the three young people are separated, endure the horrors of the Holocaust, and suffer its trauma for the rest of their lives.
A fourth character who speaks throughout the story is Truth. “I am the shadow you cannot outrun,” says Truth, “the mirror that holds your final reflection. You may duck my gaze for all your days on earth, but let me assure you, I get the final look.”
Mr. Albom explained the reason for his unique literary device. “The biggest victim in all of this … in the esoteric sense, was truth, first in Germany and then in other countries that were willing to suspend the truth. Even in the concentration camps, the lies went on.”
As an adult, Sebastian lives for revenge, neglecting his family. No one believes Fannie when she escapes her captors and returns to Greece to tell others what she knows. Nico as a boy never tells a lie, but because of guilt and the atrocities he has witnessed, as an adult he never tells the truth.
“Truth and lies. … We live in a world today where everyone is inventing their own truth, where we don’t need or want to hear the other side,” Mr. Albom said.
Near the end of “The Little Liar,” Truth speaks these words: “Humans are fallen. They were created with minds to explore, but they choose to explore their own power. They learn to lie. And those lies can let them believe they are their own God.
“Truth is the only thing that can stop them.”
That’s as neat a summary of Mr. Albom’s novel as there is.
Family Man
Readers may find a synopsis of Mr. Albom’s personal life through his podcasts or the public information on his website. What may not be known, but was crystal clear in the interview, is his love for family. With no children of their own, Mr. Albom and his wife Janine have taken the orphans of the Have Faith Haiti Orphanage under their wing and often into their home. “Finding Chika” (2019) is Mr. Albom’s moving account of their intimate connection with one Haitian girl who, despite the Alboms’ efforts, died at age 7 from a rare pediatric brain tumor. At the end of the book, Mr. Albom writes, “No matter how a family comes together, and no matter how it comes apart, this is true and will always be true: you cannot lose a child. And we did not lose a child. We were given one.”
“What’s essential,” said Mr. Albom by phone, “is that unconditional love which connects you to a child.” It is this love which connects the Alboms to the orphanage and to the many children they’ve known and helped.
When the interview ended, Mr. Albom didn’t immediately turn off his phone. For a few precious seconds, he could be heard laughing and talking with the children.
There’s an old saying about commitment: “Put your money where your mouth is.” Janine and Mitch Albom put their money, and their love, where their heart is.
This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.
