Have a Little Faith
By Mitch Albom
Sphere £12.99, 272 pages
FT Bookshop price: £10.39

“Will you do my eulogy?” Mitch Albom’s 82-year-old childhood rabbi, the “Reb” asked him. Albom was surprised at the request, having “walked away” from religion and settled down far from his New Jersey synagogue.

But he got to know his subject – who had officiated at Albom’s bar mitzvah, family weddings, and funerals – “as a man”. The eulogy wouldn’t be needed for eight years, long enough for the two men to meet often; for the Reb to become a mentor and for Albom to become reacquainted with Judaism.

Inspired by the rabbi’s teachings, Albom finds a mentor closer to home, in Detroit. Christian pastor Henry, a former criminal who had only been in a synagogue once (to burgle it) has much in common with the Reb. Both have lost a child; both helped the needy.

Albom is at times irritatingly earnest but he conveys the men’s stories beautifully and lets the parallels between them draw themselves.