Bestselling author Richard Bach explores the meaning of fate and soul mates in this modern-day fairytale based on his real-life relationship with actor Leslie Parrish. "This is a story about a knight who was dying, and the princess who saved his life," Bach writes in his opening greeting. "It's a story about beauty and beasts and spells and fortresses, about death-powers that seem and life-powers that are." Yes, it is all that, and more. On the earthly plane this is about the riveting love affair between two fully human people who are willing to explore time travel and other dimensions together even as they grapple with the earthly struggles of intimacy, commitment, smothering, and whose turn it is to cook. Their love affair and happy ending inspired many enthusiastic fans. Years later, some of these fans were devastated to discover that this match made in heaven didn't manage to stick (the couple are no longer together). But in an Amazon interview, Bach explains that lovers don't have to stay married forever to be lifetime soul mates. Read this as a lesson about love's enchantments and possibilities, but don't count on this book to keep you and your mate on the bridge across forever. --Gail Hudson


Review
"To a public that desperately wants to believe in love, Bach says: Hang on. Take heart. There is such a thing as a soulmate." -- The Atlanta Constitution

ANNOTATION

Bach's first person account of his search for the soulmate he knew he was born to meet. a moving honest love story from the author of Jonathon Liningston Seagull.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

If you've ever felt alone in a world of strangers, missing someone you've never met, you'll find a message from your love in The Bridge Across Forever.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

An extended dialogue between Bach and his inner child comprises the latest book from the author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. While hang-gliding one afternoon, Bach is reminded of a promise he made to himself when he was a child: to write a book containing the sum of all he has learned and deliver it to his nine-year-old self, Dickie. But Bach finds that Dickie is angry and hurt at having been locked away for the last 50 years. Slowly a dialogue emerges, as Bach tries to pass on his years of experience and in return relives some buried memories, particularly the events surrounding the death of his brother Bobby. What results is a kind of Richard Bach primer, summing up the author's thoughts on time, love, death and God and laying out a belief system not unlike George Bernard Shaw's idea of the Life Force. Participating in this shared voyage of discovery is Bach's wife, who contributes her own insights and acts as a kind of reality check on her husband. Though the concept here may strike some as Philosophy Lite, the book-thanks in large part to Bach's sincerity-deftly skirts sentimentality and becomes, ultimately, a real and affecting creation. (Sept.)

Library Journal

This is a fictional autobiography by the author of the best-selling Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970). After meeting an angel named Shepherd on a paragliding adventure, Bach is challenged to get to know his inner child. At one point he describes his childhood memories as "burnt monochrome footage of the time from which I had come." This statement is an accurate description of Running from Safety. Bach intermittently weaves stories about "Dickie," his inner child, with tales about paragliding. This is a misguided venture in which the author tries to incorporate mysticism, angels, his inner childhood, and paragliding. The resulting bellyflop does not provide much entertainment. Most collections can pass on this.-Ravonne A. Green, Emmanuel Coll. Lib., Franklin Springs, Ga.

BookList - Denise Perry Donavin