Summary of The First Phone Call From Heaven: by Mitch Albom | Includes Analysis

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Summary of The First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Albom | Includes Analysis

 

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The First Phone Call from Heaven by Mitch Albom is a mystery set on Lake Michigan in the small town of Coldwater. Tess Rafferty receives a phone call. She is unable to get to the phone

• Language: English
• Publisher: Instaread, Inc
• Release date: May 19, 2016
• ISBN: 9781683782896

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Book Overview

The First Phone Call from Heaven by Mitch Albom is a mystery set on Lake Michigan in the small town of Coldwater. Tess Rafferty receives a phone call. She is unable to get to the phone in time to answer it, and the caller leaves a message on the machine. Tess is stunned when the voice on the other end of the line claims to be her mother in heaven who died from Alzheimer’s disease four years ago. Similar calls are received by Police Chief Jack Sellers, who hears from his dead son, Robbie, and by Katherine Yellin who receives a call from her dead sister, Diane.

The same day the phone calls begin, Sully Harding is released from prison. He is a grieving widower and father to a seven-year-old boy. He has just finished serving time for crashing a Navy plane. He was jailed because the toxicology report after the crash showed he had alcohol in his blood. Sully maintains that the reason he crashed was because he was given wrong information from Elliot Gray, the air traffic controller, but he could not prove this fact because Elliot Gray fled the tower after the plane crash. He was immediately involved in an automobile accident with Sully’s wife, Giselle, who was on her way to the airport to pick up Sully. Elliot died in the crash. Giselle fell into a coma and never regained consciousness. She died while Sully was in prison.

Every Friday, the phone calls from heaven continue. Katherine feels compelled to announce in church the miracle she thinks she is experiencing. Elias Rowe, a construction worker, stands in church and claims that he has received a call, too. News of the calls spreads quickly and others come forward to say they have received calls from loved ones who have passed away. The media reports bring strangers to town who want to know more about the purported phone calls from heaven. Soon both believers, who want to witness the miracle themselves, and naysayers, who come to protest the calls as a hoax, fill the small town to overflowing.

The local clergymen are unsure of what to think of these so-called miracles. Pastor Warren, who leads the Baptist church Katherine attends, welcomes the renewed interest many have in the church, but he doubts the calls are truly messages from heaven. Other clergy in town believe the calls are real.

Sully, who is angry about the false hopes these phone calls are giving to people, sets out to solve the mystery and find out who is behind the calls. Sully begins to put together the pieces of the puzzle with help from: Liz, the local librarian; Maria Nicolini, who writes the local obituaries; Jason Turk, who works at the Dial-Tek Phone Center; and Elias Rowe, one of the recipients of the calls.

The frenzy of people gathering in Coldwater continues as local law enforcement officers try to figure out a way to control the crowds and maintain order. The