Christian Retailing

Interest continues to grow in afterlife books Print Email
Written by Eric Tiansay   
Monday, 25 October 2010 02:57 PM America/New_York

Publishers continue to release and market titles on the afterlife as interest on the topic show no signs of dying.

Next month, Thomas Nelson releases Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back by Nebraska pastor Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent. In the book, Burpo recounts the near-death experience of his 4-year-old son, Colton, who began surprising his parents with detailed accounts of Jesus, places described in the Scriptures and departed relatives, including meeting his sister in heaven--a girl lost in a miscarriage before he was born.

The book follows the July release by Tyndale House Publishers of The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven--co-authored by Christian therapist Kevin Malarkey. The book details the story of Malarkey's 6-year-old son, Alex, whose skull was detached from his spinal column in a car accident. While comatose, the boy says that he experienced God's voice, otherworldly music and heaven's gates.

The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven reached the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction best-seller list, with more than 97,000 copies in print after three printings already, Tyndale officials said.

Meanwhile, Bethany House Publishers/Baker Publishing Group released in May Capt. Dale Black's Flight to Heaven, an account of his near-death experience in a plane crash at age 19. Bethany House then followed that with the August release of Encountering Heaven and the Afterlife by James L. Garlow and Keith Wall-a collection of stories of the afterlife inspired by the pair's 2009 Bethany House release, Heaven and the Afterlife.

Elsewhere, Strang Book Group's 2006 Charisma House title, 23 Minutes in Hell by Bill Wiese, recently passed the 1 million mark in sales. Heaven Is So Real! by Choo Thomas, also published by Charisma House in 2006, has sold more than 1 million copies and has been translated into more than 50 languages. Additionally, Charisma House's Secrets From Beyond the Grave by Perry Stone--released Aug. 9 and on its second printing--has already sold 72,000 copies.