From the acclaimed author of The Last Year of the War comes a novel set during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, telling the story of a family reborn through loss and love.In 1918, Philadelphia was a city teeming with promise. Even as its young men went off to fight in the Great War, there were opportunities for a fresh start on its cobblestone streets. Into this bustling town, came Pauline … 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.
But just months after they arrive, the Spanish Flu reaches the shores of America. 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. But even as they lose loved ones, they take in a baby orphaned by the disease who becomes their single source of hope. Amidst the tragedy and challenges, they learn what they cannot live without—and what they are willing to do about it.
As 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.
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After the Spanish Flu of 1918 reaches the U.S., the Bright family (Thomas, Pauline, Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa) is forever changed.
After raising their family in the small town of Quakertown, Pennsylvania, Thomas and Pauline Bright decide to accept Uncle Fred’s invitation to move to Philadelphia to help with—and eventually inherit—his funeral home business. Living in a funeral parlor, near so many dead bodies and mourners, forever changed how this sweet and unassuming family viewed life and loss. I especially enjoyed Maggie’s viewpoint as a 12-13 year old very curious about her new surroundings.
I found the funeral home setting especially fascinating since my own grandmother resided in her stepfather’s funeral home around the same time period. In fact, I’m guessing she would have been right around Maggie’s age, so I wonder if that’s why I was drawn to her character the most.
This story, set among the flu epidemic and the tail end of WWI, was full of love, loss, courage amidst tragedy, and hope, and I would highly recommend it. I had no idea the Spanish flu killed so many in America (more than 12,000 in Philadelphia alone), and I enjoyed learning about this tragic time in history. This was my first book by this author, and I look forward to more!
Thank you to the author, the publisher, NetGalley for a free advance copy of this book! All opinions are my own.
My favorite historical novels are those that capture a moment in history I knew little about and bring it to life through characters who feel real enough to be alive today. To that end, Susan Meissner’s AS BRIGHT AS HEAVEN is everything I look for and more. Told in the beautifully rendered points of view of alternating members of the Bright family, this story will transport you to 1918 Philadelphia on the eve of the Spanish Flu pandemic and have you yearning, loving, and weeping alongside these courageous women. Highly recommended.
A timely, powerful story of hope, love and loss that will stay with me for a very long time.
This was a lovely story that I picked up because it was set during the Spanish Influenza. Approximately the first 1/3-1/2 of the book covers the year of 1918, and then we’re whisked forward to view how life goes on.
I thought it was very good writing. Two things surprised me:
1) Normally I don’t like books where “death” is personified to the point that he feels like a character (The Book Thief–which was wonderful, comes to mind). However in this case, it works, for various reasons.
2) The main characters go to live in their uncle’s house, and he’s an undertaker. So, naturally, quite a bit of the story hinges around what that profession was like during 1918. (Reader beware if this sort of thing bothers you.) Again, I thought it was very well done.
Another thing that Meissner does extremely well is distinguish between the three sisters–they are such different characters and come across as such on the page.
Note: This is a mainstream book, but I would consider it quite “clean.” There’s one PG scene which lasts less than a page, and there’s a bit of a twist near the end that some readers might find distasteful. IMO, these things didn’t distract from the story at all, and overall, I very much liked the book.
This was the first Meissner book I’ve read that doesn’t slip back and forth between two or more eras. I was so absorbed by this story, I’m thrilled she decided to just stay with this one time period, because I would not have wanted to flip away from it. The writing is beautiful and heartfelt, with each character’s unique perspective deftly crafted. I checked this out from the library but may need to get it for my keeper shelf in hardcover. I loved the set-up to the Spanish Flu, and so appreciate that we got to see what the family’s world was like years after the disease abated. In terms of pure storytelling, this is my favorite of Meissner’s that I’ve read so far. As Bright as Heaven isn’t published by a Christian house, but the content is clean.
From a small town in Pennsylvania as a family rolling tobacco leaves for a living to Philadelphia as a family living and working in a funeral home.
The Brights made a big change from their quiet life in Quakertown to the noisy, big city of Philadelphia. Both the city and the job Thomas Bright had were quite different from what they were used to.
The girls had to leave their friends and make new ones, but most folks weren’t interested in being friends with a funeral director’s daughter. Pauline Bright was always solemn and quiet since the death of her infant son, but she seemed a bit better but different in Philadelphia.
Along with the change in their lives comes Thomas going off to war and then the Spanish flu arriving full force and killing thousands.
AS BRIGHT AS HEAVEN has the reader following and becoming immersed in the lives of the Bright family. They were a sweet, unassuming family that you will want to be a part of and to get to know better.
The reader will also learn about The Spanish Flu and its devastation of the population around the world. If you are like me, you will do research of your own about the Spanish Flu.
Ms. Meissner has written another touching book that teaches us some history as well as teaches us about the goodness of mankind and its generosity in times of a crisis.
Another marvelous, heartfelt read by Ms. Meissner you won’t want to miss. You will fall in love with the characters and won’t want the book to end.
AS BRIGHT AS HEAVEN has a beautiful story line, beautiful research, and beautiful characters.
You will also need a few tissues. 5/5
This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher, NetGalley, and BookishFirst. I received an ARC. All opinions are my own.
The parallels between the Spanish Flu and COVID made me glad I was vaccinated by the time I read AS BRIGHT AS HEAVEN. That being said, I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the period: WWI, the Spanish Flu; it’s all told in delightful detail through the characters of Pauline (the mother) and her three delightful daughters (Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa).
Each character looks at what turns out to be a complete upheaval for their family when the flu lays Philadelphia low differently, and each tells her story in her own way.
Congratulations to the author, Susan Meissner, for an extremely well-researched and entertaining read!
This is the story of the Bright family. In 1918, Pauline and her husband Thomas move their young family to Philadelphia when Thomas is offered a job as an undertaker with his uncle’s business. Little did they know that the Spanish flu was coming and before things got better, the Bright family would be changed forever. These changes will lead the 3 Bright daughters on three different paths trying to make sense of a world that claimed the lives of so many.
This was just an okay book. I loved the first half of this book. The story of this family in the midst of the Spanish Flu – trying to keep up with all the dead who are left at their funeral home – reminded me a lot of our current pandemic. But the second half – was just fluff. I was so disappointed when the book jumped 7 years into the future just to tell mundane stories of these three sisters and their love stories. IT was like I was reading two different books.
The Fall of Marigolds, by Meissner, is one of my favorite books. I was excited to dive into her writing once again – there is no doubt she is talented. This story just didn’t do anything for me after page 150 or so.
5 Stars. How to describe the gentle beauty that is a Susan Meissner story? In this novel we readers experience hope, sorrow, joy, loss, love, and life through the hearts of the four Bright women. The aptly-named Brights touch the lives around them in a special way. Their stories cause us to cherish the timeless intangibles that make life so precious.
I have sat at the bedsides of those I love, when the veil between Heaven & Earth lifted for them to pass through. These beautiful words from the story capture such moments. They will stay with me . . .
“I had no idea the gap between earth and heaven is narrow, no wider than a jump over a brook. I’d always thought heaven was so far from the living, no one could measure its distance from earth. Even the wisest person ever born couldn’t look up at the night sky through the most powerful telescope and catch a glimpse of heaven, it was that far off.
That was the only part of knowing there is a heaven that used to frighten me—how far away it was . . . how could heaven be Paradise . . . if I was so far away no mortal could gauge the breadth of the distance that separated us?
This is why Death stayed with me . . . All this time my companion has been trying to show me that the space between the two worlds is not so vast.
Heaven is just on the other side of waking . . .
There is only the stunningly fragile human body, a holy creation capable of loving with such astonishing strength but which is weak to the curses of a fallen world. We are like butterflies, delicate and wonderful, here on earth for only a brilliant moment and then away we fly. Death is appointed to merely close the door to our suffering and open wide the gate to Paradise.
I can feel the canopy lifting, and I am not afraid . . . Look! Can you see it? It’s so beautiful! Look! So beautiful! Beautiful . . .”
I highly recommend! (And also advise keeping some tissues handy.)
This is my favorite book of all time
Since by was available at the library, and I had just started reading it, I gave it a shot and I’m at a bit of a loss for words. I ended up sticking with the audiobook more because I found the narration from three adolescent girls a new-to-me novelty. I’ve never heard children do a book before. These young ladies were awesome!u2063
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This was such a unique book. I had concerns about the premise, a family living in a Philadelphia mortician’s home during the Spanish flu. Some topics are just too close to our current reality… but I don’t think it would’ve hit me as deeply had we not been in the middle of a pandemic. I loved it! u2063
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Susan Meissner is a great writer and she used each age to showcase the troubles in a different way that you could never get from just adults.u2063
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Although there are many sad moments, there are also some unexpected real turns that reflect how uplifting life can be. Told through 4 POVs (mother and 3 young daughters), it’s a women’s fiction coming of age set just before the roaring 20s.u2063
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Each character has a deep scar–even the 7-year-old. And each character is given respect in how their lives and fears unfold. I’ve never read a book where children are given equal weight to adults but this book handled it perfectly.
I really enjoyed this book. The characters are interesting. The family’s loss believable. The setting insightful for today’s pandemic. I would recommend this story.
Storyline moved a little slow, but a good read nonetheless.
I read this book of the Spanish flu in a time of Covid 19.
When I began reading this book, based on a recommendation from a friends, I did not realize that it is set during WWI, and the Spanish flu pandemic hitting the country. The setting is mainly in Philadelphia and the characters struggle through many ordeals. I found it enthralling.
Love her books
At first I wasn’t sure this was the right time to read about one of history’s deadliest pandemics, but I somehow felt the need to educate myself about the past in order to understand our present. The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 infected approximately a third of the world’s population and killed an estimated 50 million people world wide. Meissner chose Philadelphia as the setting because it was one of the hardest hit cities in the US. The story follows the Bright family with alternating point of view between the mother, Pauline, and her three daughters. Before the flu takes hold, the family moves from rural Pennsylvania to Philapdelphia to help an uncle manage his funeral home. Little did they know that they would be on the front lines of the epidemic.
So many things about the flu epidemic parallels the unfolding story of COVID-19. Here are a few passages that hit particularly close to home.
“A boy whose name is Chester says everything is being closed. All the schools. The churches. The theaters. Parks. Any place where a crowd would gather.”
”My neighbor said there are no more beds at any of our hospitals,” says a girl names Louise…”He stood in line with his wife and waited for two hours before the nurses told him that he’d have to carry her back home. And they didn’t give her any medicine.”
“This flu is like a black shroud that has been flung across everything that breathes under the canopy of heaven, and if you could stand back far enough, you wouldn’t see all the people it touches, only the immense length and breadth of its expanse.”
Each of the main characters has her own storyline they are all equally compelling. Because of the first person narration, I occasionally had a hard time remembering whose chapter I was reading, but that didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the story. Meissner does a beautiful job exploring the emotional devastation of such a horrific and wide-reaching illness.
Excellent reminder of a world pandemic
As Bright As Heaven is such a great book that eerily mirrors these times in which we find ourselves. Meissner’s characters are solid and tugged at my heartstrings. This book made me cry but also gave me such hope. I thank the author for writing such a beautiful book about a family who overcomes tragedy.
A harrowing look at the 1918-19 Spanish Flu and the many ways it touched one family, As Bright as Heaven is an impeccably researched story of hope and love, loss and what it truly means to be a family. An important story for these unprecedented times we now find ourselves living in!