The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni

Have you ever read a book that has just left your heart so broken? That reading what the characters have to endure, whether fiction or nonfiction, just makes your heart hurt a little when you read it. A book that plays on all your emotions with empathy and sorrow being the leaders. A book so beautifully written you can’t help but cry a little. That was this book for me.

“We live for the quiet, intimate moments that mark not our calendars but our hearts… We realize it is in those quiet moments that each of us has the ability to make our lives extraordinary”.

The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

Sam Hill, otherwise known as Sam Hell by his classmates for his red pupils, is living with ocular albinism and just trying to get through each day alive. With the help from his other two misfit friends, he is able to preserver and keep moving past the pain and name calling. He believes it was God who sent him his two friends he desperately needed. 40 years later however, Sam is now a small town eye doctor and no longer confident that anything in life was done by design. What else could explain the tragedy event that had him turning his back on his friends, his hometown and everything he once knew. He decides to go on this journey to once again find out who he truly is and what truly matters in life.

When I first started this book, I wasn’t really sure how I felt about it and didn’t know the direction the book was going to take. I had a lot of anger on how the characters treated Sam. I wanted someone to stick up for him. But as the book moved on, and people came and left from his life at different times, I realized he did have people sticking up for him. Just took him and I some time to finally notice it and to see what truly matters in life. For finding those life changing moments are extraordinary in itself. Thank you AK for constantly telling me I needed to read this book and for always sticking up for me when I needed you the most.

Until Next Time, The Library Abroad