About the Book
Billy Allman is a hillbilly genius. People in Dogwood, West Virginia, say he was born with a second helping of brains and a gift for playing the mandolin but was cut short on social skills. Though he’d gladly give you the shirt off his back, they were right. Billy longs to use his life as an ode to God, a lyrical, beautiful bluegrass song played with a finely tuned heart. So with spare parts from a lifetime of collecting, he builds a radio station in his own home. People in town laugh. But Billy carries a brutal secret that keeps him from significance and purpose. Things always seem to go wrong for him. However small his life seems, from a different perspective Billy’s song reaches far beyond the hills and hollers he calls home. Malachi is an angel sent to observe Billy. Though it is not his dream assignment, Malachi follows the man and begins to see the bigger picture of how each painful step Billy takes is a note added to a beautiful symphony that will forever change the lives of those who hear it.
Get more information about Almost Heaven on Chris Fabry's website.
My Review
This was a great book! The story was so touching. It's got so much love, and yet so much pain inter-weaved into the story of Billy Allman.
Right from the beginning of the story both the love and pain show through. We first met Billy as an adult, and he really doesn't come off as being anyone special. But as the story goes back to the early part of his life it starts to get pretty interesting. There were so many times in this one that I wanted to cry for Billy. He had such a difficult life. It seemed that just as things would get good something horrid would happen to him.
I really liked to double narrative in this one. It helped move the story along when there wasn't much going on. The angel in this story was a great addition. I liked being able to see a different side of what happened and how Billy ended up where he did.
When I started this one I knew it was a work of fiction. However, as I was reading I kept thinking that this would be even more inspiring if it were true. The way some of it was written it had a feeling of a true story. So I decided to look at the author's website and found that while it is fictional it is also loosely based on the story of a real person.
Almost Heaven
