The First Phone Call from Heaven, for all its dealing with heavy themes, is an easy read - light, full of dialogue, quick-paced. I was keen to see what would become of the phone calls and the people who received them, though I'm in two minds about the reveals towards the end: I'm not sure it's really the ending that I wanted, or hoped it would be. Despite sometimes not adhering to that mantra of 'show, don't tell', Albom has nevertheless written a stimulating and tender novel (so much so that I actually cried while reading the acknowledgments, and I've never done that before...)