As Bright As Heaven by Susan Meissner

Title: As Bright As Heaven
Author: Susan Meissner
Publisher: Berkley
📖📖📖📖/5

The Bright family is new to Philadelphia when they move after the death of their son. The Brights move in with their uncle who runs a funeral home in the city. Just as they are getting used to life in the big city, Philadelphia (and the world) is hit by the Spanish Flu. The family watches as loved ones and friends are taken by a disease and their home fills with the bodies of the dead. In the midst of the death, they find a baby boy and take him in as their own. Together, they learn how to heal and move on in a world that has drastically changed.

I love historical fiction...but I don't mean the cheesy love/romance historical fiction you can find in the grocery store paperback section. I mean the kind where when you are finished, you felt like you were there. Like it could have been a true story. As Bright As Heaven fits that bill. Meissner beautifully describes a city many of us have seen, but not in the light of the 1920s when the world was being decimated by an unseen disease. I very much enjoyed Meissner's writing style.

The story is seen from four viewpoints: Pauline (the mother) Evelyn, Maggie and Willa (her daughters). I did enjoy hearing different accounts of what was going on through the eyes of different people. It did get a bit hard to follow at times, but those times were rare. If there was only one thing that bugged me, it was that the father did not get a point of view as well. I know that would have meant more stories to keep track of, but he was part of the family and it was sad we never got to hear his thoughts. Especially later in the story.

In all, I highly recommend this story for historical fiction lovers as well as general reading lovers alike.

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