Not that anything is very simple in "Sand Dollar." Noah -- who at this point is actually dead -- has to get permission from God (in the guise of an orderly named Josh) to revive for the few seconds that it takes to exchange this vow. At several points during the book, Steven Curtis Chapman's "I Will Be Here" is mentioned. It is the perfect background music as no one is more faithful to his beloved than Noah, but things just keep going wrong. Still, when Josh says of Noah's life that it sounds "like a story of heartbreak and misfortune," Noah replies that he would prefer to call it, "a story of undying love."

The structure of the book -- the plotting is a montage of flashbacks and fast forwards -- is undoubtedly appropriate for such a topsy-turvy life and might work well in a movie -- but as a novel it is almost as demanding on the reader as it is on Noah. This reviewer read from both the ebook and the paperback and would recommend the paperback to readers. It's a great story, but it covers 45 years of Noah's life in some 200 pages so a lot of the characters get short shrift. You'll want a format that allows you to easily flip back if you get confused.