Recommended by Dunsborough Book Chat Club
Three years after losing his family in a tragic Christmas Eve accident, grief-stricken Paul Wanlass hasn’t just given up on Christmas, he’s given up on life. He can’t imagine anything to keep him here – not his work as a computer repairman, not the residents in his Salt Lake City neighbourhood, and certainly not the idea of connecting with someone new. When a stranger knocks on his door, claiming to be picking up a laptop, Paul allows him in – but discovers the man has a very different mission in mind.
Paul challenges him to give him one reason to live. The stranger agrees to the challenge but warns Paul not to expect a path he would have guessed or chosen. Paul’s life takes a wild and fateful turn. A robbery connects him with a woman who has also lost the love of her life, and, in a seemingly unrelated incident, Paul rescues a young boy from bullying, only to find the boy needs a different kind of rescue. The twists leave Paul wondering what these people have in common, and why they were brought together. Who – or what – really is this Christmas stranger, and how will Paul find meaning once again?
4/5 Stars