Book Review: Mr God, this is Anna by Sydney Hopkins

Few books can haunt your thoughts once they are over. This one does. The look of the book is sufficient to entice you to go through a couple of pages and that is when you feel you should not drop this one down. The first sentence of the book starts with a spelling mistake – “Difference” is spelled as “diffrense” and you feel like having a look at the publisher’s name, but … Wait a minute! The whole sentence is wrong. It hardly makes any sense. You try to read the next one, so that you can decipher what this excellently titled book wants to convey and it is there that you fall into the trap of reading it cover to cover.

The first sentence (in inverted commas) is a statement made by a six-year old child Anna. The author captures the innocence of a child by spelling certain words incorrectly. That is his way of showing lisp in the child’s pronunciation.

Anna, presented as a special child, has a different kind of relationship with God. Her understanding of God is different from that of ours. She thinks about life every moment and it is her understanding of life which leaves you mesmerized. She doesn’t believe in reading Bible or any other religious text. According to her, religion was for doing things and not reading about doing things. She sees God’s hand in every aspect of life. Her way of talking to/about Him brings a smile to your face.

More engrossing than the intellectually stimulating conversations are the portions covering the relationship between the author and the girl child. They share a special relationship which tickles your emotions and succeeds in giving you goose bumps. There are at least hundred philosophical notes in this emotional yet practical symphony. Be it the meaning of life, definition of God, difference between being safe and being saved, positives of night life or relation between facts and meaning, ‘Anna’ lets you have a look from a different perspective.

The end again is very emotional and you are bound to have wet eyes. The only negative, I could find in this book is the inconsistency in terms of comprehensibility. There are certain parts which really go over your head and you have to re-read to grasp the meaning. The use of spelling mistakes for projecting lisp sometimes makes you struggle to comprehend the meaning. But considering the book’s ability to touch hearts and change lives, these flaws can be easily overlooked. A must read!!!