Have a Little FaithA True Story

With Have a Little Faith, Mitch Albom returns to nonfiction for the first time since Tuesdays with Morrie was published 12 years ago. His new book begins with a strange request: an 82-year-old man asks Mitch to deliver the eulogy at his funeral. But not just any man. A clergyman, a man of the cloth, Mitch's lifelong rabbi. The man who sends people off to heaven, now wants the author to do it for him. This begins a journey that spans eight years, in which Mitch, feeling totally unqualified for the eulogy request, insists on getting to know the man behind the robes and the pulpit, even as he slowly decays in his old age. Mitch explores the human side of the people who "believe," and examines why people believe in those people. He and "The Reb" (as the teenagers nicknamed him) discuss numerous topics that perplex modern man: how to be righteous in a world that isn't; how a cleric keeps from growing cynical; intermarriage; atheism; the "us" and them" of religion; war; heaven; what happens when a man of God begins to doubt God.The visits inspire Mitch - a self described "fallen" member of his faith - to reexamine his own feelings, and to explore a world totally different than the middle-class suburban temple he knew as a child. He becomes involved with a poor, struggling black church in downtown Detroit that has a huge hole in its roof where rain comes pouring in. The pastor there is a reformed criminal who came out of prison and turned his life over to God. In getting to know him and his congregation, Mitch realizes how similar faith can be - even in settings that couldnt be more different.