For One More Day

　　From the author of The Five People You Meet in Heaven and Tuesdays with Morrie, a new novel that millions of fans have been waiting for.

"Every family is a ghost story . . ."

　　Mitch Albom mesmerized readers around the world with his number one New York Times bestsellers, The Five People You Meet in Heaven and Tuesdays with Morrie. Now he returns with a beautiful, haunting novel about the family we love and the chances we miss.

　　For One More Day is the story of a mother and a son, and a relationship that covers a lifetime and beyond. It explores the question: What would you do if you could spend one more day with a lost loved one? As a child, Charley "Chick" Benetto was told by his father, "You can be a mama's boy or a daddy's boy, but you can't be both." So he chooses his father, only to see the man disappear when Charley is on the verge of adolescence.

　　Decades later, Charley is a broken man. His life has been crumbled by alcohol and regret. He loses his job. He leaves his family. He hits bottom after discovering his only daughter has shut him out of her wedding. And he decides to take his own life.

　　He makes a midnight ride to his small hometown, with plans to do himself in. But upon failing even to do that, he staggers back to his old house, only to make an astonishing discovery. His mother-who died eight years earlier-is still living there, and welcomes him home as if nothing ever happened.

　　What follows is the one "ordinary" day so many of us yearn for, a chance to make good with a lost parent, to explain the family secrets, and to seek forgiveness. Somewhere between this life and the next, Charley learns the astonishing things he never knew about his mother and her sacrifices. And he tries, with her tender guidance, to put the crumbled pieces of his life back together.

　　Through Albom's inspiring characters and masterful storytelling, readers will newly appreciate those whom they love-and may have thought they'd lost-in their own lives. For One More Day is a book for anyone in a family, and will be cherished by Albom's millions of fans worldwide.

　　中年男子查理，本是職業棒球選手，由於受傷而不再能馳騁於運動場。此後他謀生不順，個性變得乖僻難纏；他自暴自棄，終日酗酒。妻女離他而去。當他得知獨生女連婚禮也不要他參加，他覺得自己被打碎了。他決定自殺。 　　他在一個靈異般的情境裡與死去的母親重逢。他回到老家所在的小鎮，陪母親渡過 了一天。這一天，很平常；這一天，卻也很不一樣，因為，母親終於說出了那個祕密。

　　父親當年為什麼要拋下他們，離家出走？這個問題像一個不曾痊癒的傷口，在查理 心中淤著血。而今，這個祕密像煙一樣浮出，遮住了天空，他震驚也茫然——在今生與 來生之間的某一個地方，查理重新認識了自己的母親，得知了母親為家庭所做的犧牲。

　　查理努力記住他在與母親重逢那天所得到的溫柔和理解，把他以為已經破碎的生命 重新拼湊起來。查理重新活了一次。

　　意外與母親相聚的這一天，讓查理懂得了什麼叫「家」。家，不需要你講道理，只 需要你理解，接受，然後，愛。

本書中譯本由大塊文化出版