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. A book filled with beauty, As Bright as Heaven is masterfully done.įrom 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. This is a story about family and the resiliency of the female spirit, about grace in the face of adversity and all the little moments that bring joy. Meissner has penned a beautifully-constructed world dominated by female protagonists that, time and again, find themselves completely devastated yet somehow rise up, infused with hope and determination to survive. Just when all is well again, the Spanish Flu hits, to terrible effect for both the family and the community.

Even though they are surrounded by death, Pauline and her daughters grow, laugh, love and slowly begin to heal. Maggie helps Pauline style the hair and the make-up of the deceased and Willa is a precocious teenager blessed with the gift of song. The eldest daughter, Evelyn is fascinated by books, science, and anatomy and her new environment (though morbid), feeds her passion for knowledge of these things. Though their three daughters don't understand why they have to leave all they have ever known behind, they are soon absorbed with their new life at the mortuary. So when her husband is offered the opportunity to help his brother run the family funeral home in the big city of Philadelphia, they jump at the chance to leave their sleepy farm town and create a new beginning.

The novel opens with heartbreak: A mother, Pauline, is reeling from the sudden death of her infant son. Such is the case with As Bright as Heaven, a stunning and intimate family saga that follows the lives of the Bright family women against the backdrop of World War I-era Philadelphia during the little-known Spanish flu pandemic that took thousands of American lives. I love when a book makes me experience such powerful and raw emotions that, days after turning the last page, I find myself still completely immersed in that world.

Susan meissner as bright as heaven