I definitely recommend this one, but this book requires work on the part of the reader, so don’t expect a quick or easy reading experience. I said to a friend that it was very true to life, making it messy and filled with sorrow despite the joy. It is indeed a beautifully written novel set during an unfamiliar (to me) era in US history. When given the chance to read As Bright As Heaven, I, of course, issued a resounding YES! But I have to say I have mixed feelings about this novel. I have loved all the books that I have read by this very talented author - from her poignant contemporary debut through her richly detailed historical novels. Susan Meissner is one of my favorite authors. Visit Susan at her website: Twitter at or at My Impressions: Susan is a pastor’s wife and a mother of four young adults.

A California native, she attended Point Loma Nazarene University. Her novels include As Bright as Heaven, starred review in Library Journal A Bridge Across the Ocean Secrets of Charmed Life, a Goodreads finalist for Best Historical Fiction 2015 and A Fall of Marigolds, named to Booklist’s Top Ten Women’s Fiction titles for 2014. Susan Meissner is a multi-published author, speaker and writing workshop leader with a background in community journalism. Amidst the tragedy and challenges, they learn what they cannot live without–and what they are willing to do about it.Īs Bright as Heaven is the compelling story of a mother and her daughters who find themselves in a harsh world not of their making, which will either crush their resolve to survive or purify it.

But even as they lose loved ones, they take in a baby orphaned by the disease who becomes their single source of hope. As the pandemic claims more than twelve thousand victims in their adopted city, they find their lives left with a world that looks nothing like the one they knew.

Into this bustling town, came Pauline Bright and her husband, filled with hope that they could now give their three daughters–Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa–a chance at a better life.īut just months after they arrive, the Spanish Flu reaches the shores of America. Even as its young men went off to fight in the Great War, there were opportunities for a fresh start on its cobblestone streets. In 1918, Philadelphia was a city teeming with promise. From the acclaimed author of Secrets of a Charmed Life and A Bridge Across the Ocean comes a new novel set in Philadelphia during the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, which tells the story of a family reborn through loss and love.

As Bright as Heaven by Susan Meissner