Despite the fact that men are headed to fight in The Great War, the possiblility of the new move for Pauline, her husband and three daughters seems like a wonderful chance and new beginnings.

Pauline Bright has lost her baby son, so this move for her family looks like it could be positive. The Bright family moves to Philadelphia to hope for a better life, where the husband will be working in his Uncle's Funeral Home. The characters are described as complex complicated and confused, mostly dictated by the devastating times. The timeline of the story is around 1918, when there is the Spanish flu epidemic and carries through the Great War, World War One, and after. The story setting for this story is mostly in Philadelphia, and some other areas as described in the story. The genres for this story are Historical Fiction and Fiction. I love the vivid descriptions of the setting and the characters in 'As Bright As Heaven' by Susan Meissner. So, cancel your appointments for a day and settle in to read 'As Bright as Heaven.' You won't be sorry. But the history against which the novel is set lends a necessary dose of reality. Loving parents support most of the children in the novel, and, were it not for the flu and World War I, their lives would be too perfect to believe. As Pauline comments midway through the book: 'If we were made of stone or iron, we would be impervious to disease and injury and disaster, but then we could not give love and receive love, could we? We'd be unable to feel anything at all, and surely incapable of spreading our wings and flying…' These characters to a person give and receive love, and the sisters Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa, surely spread their wings and fly in three very diverse fields, psychiatry, mortuary work, and jazz. Above all else, though, for me, this is a book about love in its many manifestations. The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 is practically a character in this work of historical fiction, given that it is the flu that influences just about all that takes place for the Bright family. Weiss) and 'As Bright as Heaven' becomes a book with wide appeal. Add in some truly memorable male characters (especially Jamie, and though he has a very minor role, Mr. The four female characters (Pauline, Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa) who tell the story in alternating chapters captured my attention and interest from the first page.

I was stunned by how much I enjoyed this book! Susan Meissner is so skilled at writing from multiple points of view that I am left in awe of her talent.

Book as bright as heaven