THE STRANGER IN THE

LIFE BOAT
- Presentation by
Het Shukla(220130107128) & Lalit Uneval(220130107140)
Branch : CE Class : B3
English (3110002)
Topic : My Favourite book
- A Book By Mitch Albom.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MITCH ALBOM
Born on 23 May 1958 , Mitchell David
Albom is an American author,
journalist, and musician.
Mitch Albom is the author of
numerous books of fiction and
nonfiction, which have collectively
sold more than forty million copies
in forty-seven languages
worldwide.
 He has written seven number-one
New York Times bestsellers –
including Tuesdays with Morrie,
the bestselling memoir of all time,
which topped the list for four
straight years,  The Five People You
Meet in Heaven and The First
Phone Call from Heaven.
THEME OF THE NOVEL

This book has spiritual themes as is typical of Mitch Albom’s writings ,a fast-
paced, compelling novel that makes you ponder your deepest beliefs, The
Stranger in the Lifeboat suggests that answers to our prayers may be found
where we least expect them.

In life , everyone needs someone to hold on to ; and the person you choose to hold on to
determines the final destination you end up yourself at.

Hold on to yourself and you will control your fate ; hold on to Lord and he will raise you
up. For the Lord dwells in our soul , holding on to Him is holding on to us .

This book is a profound new novel of hope and faith.

What would happen if we called on God for help and God
actually appeared?

Adrift in a raft after a deadly ship explosion, ten people

struggle for survival at sea.

Three days pass. Short on water, food and hope, they

spot a man floating in the waves. They pull him in.

“Thank the Lord we found you,” a passenger says.

“I am the Lord,” the man whispers.

.
SETTING OF THE NOVEL
Days after billionaire Jason Lambert’s
luxury yacht Galaxy suddenly sinks in
the North Atlantic with many
illustrious passengers aboard, a few
survivors float in a life raft. Among
them is Benji, a deckhand who
narrates the ordeal in a notebook
while they desperately hope for rescue
Short on water, food and hope,
three days into the ordeal they
spot a man floating in the
waves. They pull him in and he
claims to be God. The added
male passenger on the lifeboat
tells all members they will be
saved from the dilemma they
are in if all on the lifeboat
believe in Him.
Lambert is a caricature of a
greedy capitalist pig who thinks
only of himself and his lost ship
and mocks Benji as “scribble
boy”. They shortly rescue a little
girl of eight to nine years of age
with central heterochromia. A
girl with a pale white skin who
doesn’t speak a single word ,was
named Alice by the people on
lifeboat.
 Meanwhile, the ship’s
disappearance is big news
as searchers scour the vast
ocean in vain. The lost
survivors are surrounded
by water and dying of The stranger’s claim made
thirst, “a grim reminder of others skeptic : If you’re not
how little the natural lying, then why won’t you save
 Out of desperation, one us? Why don’t you answer our
world cares for our plans”. person succumbs to prayers? “I always answer
temptation and drinks ocean people’s prayers, he replies,
water—always a bad mistake. “but sometimes the answer is
Another becomes shark food. no.”
The Lord says that for him to
help, everyone must accept
him first, and Lambert, for one,
is having none of it. 
 At the end of twelve days, there
were only four survivors left –
Benji, Jason, Alice and the man
who claimed to be God. Jason ,
who drank sea water, was facing
several nervous issues due to it. In
desperation to have the last bit of
food remains, he stabbed the
stranger in his neck and he
disappeared in the depths of the
ocean. The stranger was killed. But
was he, actually ?
left only two survivors on the boat-
is revealed to be an angel who was
The lifeboat encountered a storm.
Jason, who was slowly losing his
senses, fell into the water and
became food to the sharks. This
Benji who finally held on to Alice
tightly in his grip, asking her to
never leave him and that they will
be safe soon. To, this the little girl
finally whispers “I’m the Lord and
I’ll never leave you.” The stranger
sent to test if they shared even if
they were starving, if they cared
for others even in despair.
The notebook in which Benji
penned down the events is
discovered—a year later—when
the empty life raft washes up on
the island of Montserrat. It falls to
the island’s chief inspector, Jarty
LeFleur, a man battling his own
demons, to solve the mystery of
what really happened. The person
who reported the lifeboat coming
on shore turned out to be Benji
himself. And the book he received
from the boat helped Jarty to find
his own answers from life.
MESSAGE CONVEYED

The novel asks us to consider what we ask of God and how we would react if the Lord
walked among us.

It also wanted us to realize that godliness exists in the meekest human beings and creates a
mute character, Alice, among the survivors in the lifeboat.

Finally, the novel wanted us to recognize that our prayers are often answered in unexpected
ways, and it is crucial to remain open to disguised heavenly gifts.
Despair has its own voice , it’s a prayer like none else.

The lifeboat characters represent the worldly people lost when the yacht sinks. Holding on
to the Truth will get us out from the shipwreck.

They highlight cultural values in a media-driven world.