Human Touch: A Story in Real Time by Mitch Albom

One of my favorite authors is Mitch Albom. When the coronavirus pandemic started Mitch Albom decided to write a real-time novel about hope. Each week he posted a chapter of the book. I read an interview where he talked about the process of writing this book. Unlike published books, this book was unedited, there were no rewrites, it was just his words typed out and put online. The book is about four families that share a single street corner. They have become close over the years and get together each weekend. One family is of Chinese descent and during the book, you see how hard it is for this family as criticism against their heritage arises. There is a doctor and his family. He faces many challenges as this virus progresses and eventually hits him personally.  The town preacher struggles when he is notified to shut down his church. Will he follow his faith and put other lives in danger? The fourth family runs the local mill in town. His shelves are empty and supplies are hard to get. He and his wife deal with rude customers and rebellion in his own family. The housekeeper of one family is the mother of a very special little boy named Moses. Why has Moses never been sick? What secret is his mother hiding and why does she think he is the answer to healing the world? Mitch Albom wrote this book to provide a ray of hope and I believe he did that for me.

By Karyn Schemm, Assistant Director