Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Search - For One More Day

For One More Day
For One More Day
Author: Mitch Albom
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 ...  more » 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.
Info icon
ISBN-13: 9781401309572
ISBN-10: 1401309577
Publication Date: 4/1/2008
Pages: 208
Rating:
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 93

4 stars, based on 93 ratings
Publisher: Hyperion
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio CD
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

Susanaque avatar reviewed For One More Day on + 422 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 7
If you had the chance to go back and fix what you did wrong in life, would you take it? This book will make you smile. It will make you wistful. It will make you blink back tears of nostalgia. But most of all, it will make you believe in the eternal power of a mother's love.
reviewed For One More Day on + 101 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 7
Excellent for those who have lost a loved one with unresolved issues between them. It allows you to imagine the conversation you might have had IF you had been given the extra time.
GeniusJen avatar reviewed For One More Day on + 5322 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
Mitch Albom is an author who has a lot to live up to. After such great hits as TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE and THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVNE, I opened my copy of FOR ONE MORE DAY wondering if he'd be able to pull off another winner. The answer, wholeheartedly, is yes.

Albom pays tribute to mothers with the story of Charley "Chick" Benetto, who remembers clearly the words his father told him as a young boy: "You can be a mama's boy or a daddy's boy. But you can't be both."

For most of his life, Chick worked towards being a daddy's boy. Even when his father's love was elusive, it was the one thing he always strove to earn. It wasn't until later that Chick learned, as everyone does, that love not given freely can never be earned, no matter how hard we try.

When Chick's downward spiral leads to an attempted suicide, he's granted the one thing he's always wished for since his mother's death eight years previously--the chance to spend one more day with a mother who always loved him unconditionally, even when he didn't deserve it.

FOR ONE MORE DAY is the story of Chick, but even more so the story of his mother, Posey, a women who sacrificed more, and withstood more heartache, than her children ever knew. And as Chick realizes that he'd made the wrong decision, all those years ago, in becoming a daddy's boy, he's also given the chance to forgive himself, and, ultimately, become a better person.

This is an emotional and heartfelt read, every bit as good as Mr. Albom's previous releases. In recent articles I've read negative comments about the author being "too sentimental" in his writings; all I can say to that is that when sentimentality starts being a crime, we're all in trouble.
LoveNE avatar reviewed For One More Day on + 40 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
Fabulous read! Albom as usual makes us cry and enjoy it at the same time! This is the story of one mans journey...trying to right a wrong...He finds himself at the end of his rope when a miraculous day begins with his dead mother. He begins to unravel his life as he views it from his moms point of view. A must read and reread!
SGTBob avatar reviewed For One More Day on + 156 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I loved this book. How the main character has ruined his life then suddenly has an experience which leaves him looking at his life in a different way, is very profound to say the least. I have passed this book on to friends who I know will enjoy it as much as I did.
Read All 132 Book Reviews of "For One More Day"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

reviewed For One More Day on + 1452 more book reviews
The stories that this author unfolds for me are always fascinating. I understand that this one was biographical yet I liked it just as much as others. There were two parts spoken by Charley's mother that will stay with me for a long time: "Trees spend all day looking up to God." "When someone is in your heart they are never truly gone. They can come back to you even at unlikely times."

What would I do if I had one more day with someone I love who is gone? I can only think of my father whose death occurred when I was hundreds of miles away. My only solace is that I was able to help him recover from his first stroke. Yes, I wish I had one more day.
reviewed For One More Day on + 5 more book reviews
My mom past away a few years ago so I really liked this book and could relate to it very much. It gave me such hope for my life and how I look at it.
reviewed For One More Day on + 4 more book reviews
Didn't like this book as much as others from Mitch Albom.
reviewed For One More Day on
Really really good read. Very typical of Albom, but thats what makes it a good read. I finished this book in one read, I couldn't put it down.
sharonc9630 avatar reviewed For One More Day on + 63 more book reviews
I loved this book. Read it one night in one sitting. Very powerful
feelings. I got a big kick out of the surprise picture at the back of the book.
Highly recommend!
kmattes avatar reviewed For One More Day on + 9 more book reviews
I actually liked this book BETTER than Albom's others. It made me weap. I loved the mother/child relationship; it made me think of my own mother (who is still alive...in fact, I lent her this book after reading it)!
reviewed For One More Day on + 372 more book reviews
A sweet book. A guy relives times with his mother, after she is dead, but he believes her to still be alive.
reviewed For One More Day on + 29 more book reviews
This is a small book but not one to rush through, as there is much to ponder. To some it may seem simplistic, but the author is on a quest to tell others what life is all about and each persons relationships to one another. It's not really a religious book, nor is it a preachy book. It's about his own experiences and how the reader can relate to them and to their own.
sherrie824 avatar reviewed For One More Day on + 57 more book reviews
What an excellent afternoon read! I loved this book! Another true wonder of Mitch Albom in his one and only engrossing style! This story hit home like a ton of bricks when I thought of my own life and family in the same scenario. If anyone has ever lost someone dear to them and after that person is gone they think of what "could have been IF things had been different" on the last day they saw them or the last time they talked to them...I also must say bring the tissues, it is a very heart-rendering, love story of a mother and a son.


Genres: