But, no matter how much the Bright family tried to heal after little Henry’s death it was a wound that would never completely close.ĭuring the influenza epidemic, schools, churches, and businesses all around the city closed. When Pauline saw an opportunity to work with the deceased, making them as beautiful as possible before burial, she seized it. Pauline didn’t mind though she wanted to understand more about this darkness that clung to her.

It never seemed to stray from her for any length of time. How could it be? Pauline, however, felt death around her, like a constant companion. Life for the entire Bright family was never the same after losing Henry.

Pauline Bright was devastated after, Henry, her infant son, died. Susan Meissner brings the reader deep into the hearts and minds of the Bright family, focusing mainly on Pauline Bright, and her three daughters, Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa. This story takes place during the Spanish influenza epidemic in the city of Philadelphia. Amidst the tragedy and challenges, they learn what they cannot live without-and what they are willing to do about it.Īs Bright as Heaven is the compelling story of a mother and her daughters who find themselves in a harsh world not of their making, which will either crush their resolve to survive or purify it.Īs Bright As Heaven is a compelling and beautifully written novel about grief, love, and surviving loss. But even as they lose loved ones, they take in a baby orphaned by the disease who becomes their single source of hope. As the pandemic claims more than twelve thousand victims in their adopted city, they find their lives left with a world that looks nothing like the one they knew.

Into this bustling town, came Pauline Bright and her husband, filled with hope that they could now give their three daughters-Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa-a chance at a better life.īut just months after they arrive, the Spanish Flu reaches the shores of America. Even as its young men went off to fight in the Great War, there were opportunities for a fresh start on its cobblestone streets. In 1918, Philadelphia was a city teeming with promise. From the acclaimed author of The Last Year of the War comes a novel set during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, telling the story of a family reborn through loss and love.

Susan meissner as bright as heaven