Product Description

THE TOUCHING TRUE STORY THAT WON THE HEARTS OF MILLIONS OF READERS AROUND THE WORLD!

Anna was only four years old when Fynn found her on London's fog-shrouded docks. He took her back to his mother's home, and from that first moment, their times together were filled with delight and discovery. Anna had an astonishing ability to ask--and to answer--life's largest questions. Her total openness and honesty amazed all who knew her. She seemed to understand with uncanny certainty the purpose of being, the essence of feeling, the beauty of love. You see, Anna had a very special friendship with Mister God. . . .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #186338 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-07
• Released on: 2000-11-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780345441553
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
'The explosive individuality of Anna is not sentimentally touching but sometimes almost frightening. I hope that a new edition will introduce a new generation to this formidable and astonishing figure.' Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

Review
"A BOOK THAT SWELLS IN THE MIND AND HAUNTS THE THOUGHTS."
--Los Angeles Times

"Like most good things, [this book] is deceptively simple. Insights steal their way into the reader's mind the same way Anna steals into the reader's heart."
--Chicago Sun-Times

From the Inside Flap
THE TOUCHING TRUE STORY THAT WON THE HEARTS OF MILLIONS OF READERS AROUND THE WORLD!

Anna was only four years old when Fynn found her on London's fog-shrouded docks. He took her back to his mother's home, and from that first moment, their times together were filled with delight and discovery. Anna had an astonishing ability to ask--and to answer--life's largest questions. Her total openness and honesty amazed all who knew her. She seemed to understand with uncanny certainty the purpose of being, the essence of feeling, the beauty of love. You see, Anna had a very special friendship with Mister God. . . .

Customer Reviews

Spoken from the heart -
One of the most heartwarming and beautiful books one can imagine, about the major logical questions in the universe. A unique look on reality told from the perspective of a little girl and her relationship with God. The book is extremely well written and easy to read. At the same time it conveys a startling take on some of the most provocative questions the human race has been grappling with over the centuries.

Walt Disney takes on Richard Bach with a hint of Dickens
The book recounts the friendship formed between the author and narrator Fynn (who is in his late teens or early 20s in the narrative) and a foundling named Anna in London's East End, in the 1930s. Anna, reminiscent of a character from Dickens, is a little girl who lives on the streets until she is taken in by the narrator. She has a unique perspective on life, a mystical spirituality, and a boundless curiosity that she shares with the author and the reader on every page. She occasionally (at least once per chapter) lets loose with a metaphor or pronouncement that is as deep as they come, but it is hard to imagine a real five-year old spouting these profundities with such regularity. Was she a real kid or just a figment of the author's imagination? I have no idea, but I do know that her death in the final chapter (this isn't a spoiler---Fynn tells us about her death in the first few pages) felt real enough.

I loved the characters of Fynn and Anna, yet I have mixed feelings about the book itself. It was given to me as a gift by a good friend, who in turn had it recommended to him. Both recommendations came with the suggestion that the book had substantially shifted their perspectives. Yet in reading the book, I could never shake my suspicion that the author was just using sentimental tricks to make the book seem profounder than it really was. (It felt like the same kind of emotional manipulation that I associate with the movie Forrest Gump.) Put it this way: if the wise-sounding comments had come from an adult, rather than from a small homeless child, would they still have seemed as deep?

Luckily, the book is an easy read and is readily available in almost every thrift store in the country, so you can read it for yourself and see what you think.

Profound and Wonderful
All I can say to anyone reading this is: please read this book. Whatever you believe about God, religion, love, and the human condition will be radically altered for the better after you meet Fynn and Anna. It's not the usual so-called inspiration, but a real eye (and soul) opener. Highly recommended.