On Tuesday, Oct. 14, author Mitch Albom promoted his new book “Twice” at the Historic Artcraft Theatre as part of a fundraiser for the Johnson County Public Library Foundation.
Albom, an accomplished author known for writing the 1997 memoir “Tuesdays with Morrie,” as well as inspirational fiction like “The Five People You Meet In Heaven” and “For One More Day,” wrote “Twice” as a novel that is reminiscent of his past works, while still keeping things fresh with a strong theme.
Author Mitch Albom presents his new book “Twice” at the Historic Artcraft Theatre, on Oct. 14.
Photo by Connor Burress
As described on his website, “Twice” is a story where “Alfie Logan discovers the magical ability to get a second chance at everything. He can undo any moment and live it again. The one catch: he must accept the consequences of his second try – for better or worse.”
Noting that readers will see similarities to his previous books, Albom characterized his latest novel as more than just his traditional style.
“I think they can expect a book that’s typical of the way that I write, with a story that is both intriguing and also kind of a bit of a thriller, because it races along,” Albom told The Franklin. “The inspiration was the idea of people thinking the grass is always greener and I wanted to write something that dealt with that.”
For Albom, coming to Franklin was an opportunity to share his experiences and break up some of the tedium that comes from his work, but it was also a way to wind down before starting on another project.
“I enjoy going around the Midwest and talking to different audiences about the book when it comes out,” he said. “Writing is a lonely profession, and you don’t really get to talk to anybody while you’re doing it. The one chance you have is when [the book] comes out, and you can kind of go around … and you sort of present it almost like a show.”
Some of Albom’s previous works were turned into movies after spending weeks on the best seller charts. However, in the case of “Twice,” the process happened in reverse.
“It’s already been picked up by Netflix, and they’re turning it into a movie,” Albom said. “For the first time in my career, a studio bought one of my books before it even came out. So, they actually already have a script, and the book itself just hit the shelves.”
While Albom has had an accomplished career financially and with his fame, that was never the metric for how he defined his success. Instead, his fulfillment came from the fact that he was helping others with his work.
“To me, I think you can look at your life and say … I’m proud of how I’m spending my time,” Albom said. “I don’t think that really happened for me until my late 30s after ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ and into my 40s when I started working with charities and spending my time doing charitable work instead of just trying to help myself. I think that’s when I began to see you do have the capability inside you to help other people.”
The focus of Albom’s writing is predominantly on personal connections, love, mortality and opportunities. “Twice,” like all of his novels, tries to leave the reader with something to reflect on.
“I can’t say I expect it, but I hope that they take away an inspiration about second chances and understand that while we all wish for second chances, and we all wish we had a power like Alfie has in the book, the truth is we do have that power,” Albom said. “It’s called the next minute of our lives. And we can actually take everything that we’ve learned up to this moment, and if we learn from our mistakes or learn from our experiences and change, we do get a second chance.”