“A father and a son are seeing each other for the first time in years. The father has a story to share before it’s too late. He tells his son about a courageous little girl lying in a hospital bed a few miles away. She’s a smart kid—smart enough to know that she won’t beat cancer by drawing with crayons all day, but it seems to make the adults happy, so she keeps doing it.
As he talks about this plucky little girl, the father also reveals more about himself: his triumphs in business, his failures as a parent, his past regrets, his hopes for the future.
Now, on a cold winter’s night, the father has been given an unexpected chance to do something remarkable that could change the destiny of a little girl he hardly knows. But before he can make the deal of a lifetime, he must find out what his own life has actually been worth, and only his son can reveal that answer.” – The Deal of a Lifetime, Fredrik Backman.
I’m going to share a secret with you. Do you know how to get out of a ‘I just can’t read a book this week, I don’t have any time’ funk? You pick up a novella. There! Now you’ve read a book, but it only took you an hour (or less!). Want to know another secret? This novella by Backman is the perfect one to pick up.
Wow. I mean, really. Wow. When I tell you that I cried through most of The Deal of a Lifetime I don’t mean it as a bad thing! In fact, I love an author who can write so clearly and soo concisely that I feel the emotions that the character’s are feeling.
I checked out this book via my library app (https://www.overdrive.com) and I’m considering buying it now. It was that good. I’m just going to share some quotes from this book so that you have an idea of what you’re missing out on.
“You were always someone who could be happy. You don’t know how much of a blessing that is.”
“The only thing of value on Earth is time. One second will always be a second, there’s no negotiating with that.”
“Happy people don’t create anything, their world is one without art and music and skyscrapers, without discoveries and innovations. All leaders, all of your heroes, they’ve been obsessed. Happy people don’t get obsessed, they don’t devote their lives to curing illnesses or making planes take off. The happy leave nothing behind. They live for the sake of living, they’re only on earth as consumers.”
“I tried to make you tough. You ended up kind.”
Rating: 5 out of 5
Why: The story is written as a letter to the main character’s son. We see the remorse that the man has over not having been a better father, but he’s not apologetic. It’s a fact that he abandoned his son, but he doesn’t dwell on it. There are elements of magical realism which I wasn’t expecting but were wonderfully woven into the plot. I’ll admit that by reading the blurb for this book, I wasn’t expecting the actual story to be written as a letter that never reaches the son. No spoilers, either! It’s only 58 pages long, y’all! I really can’t say much more about it other than you should go read it.
With love and wishing you a blessed day, Storm
Storm Shultz 