Product Description

My name is Sam. I am eleven years old. I collect stories and fantastic facts. By the time you read this, I will probably be dead. Sam loves facts. He wants to know about UFOs and horror movies and airships and ghosts and scientists, and how it feels to kiss a girl. And because he has leukaemia he wants to know the facts about dying. Sam needs answers to the questions nobody will answer. WAYS TO LIVE FOREVER is the first novel from an extraordinarily talented young writer. Funny and honest, it is one of the most powerful and uplifting books you will ever read.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50298 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 215 pages

Customer Reviews

Everyone should read this!
I read this book in one sitting whilst waiting for a visa in the Ugandan Embassy: I was so engrossed and had eyes so full of tears that I failed to notice when my ticket number was called, despite the 4 hour wait.

Ways to Live Forever is one of the most honest books I have ever read - it is hard to remember that it is a work of fiction when the characters seem so real. Sam is dying of leukaemia yet somehow his story is neither tragic nor sentimental. As an 11-year-old, Sam is keen to find out as much about death as he can: his list of Questions Nobody Will Answer is testimony to how uncomfortable the subject is for the adults in Sam's life. Yet Sam is practical, and curious about his fate, and determined not to waste any of the time he has left.

This book takes a taboo subject and shines a bright light straight at it: if a death is imminent, then don't try and pretend it won't happen. Ways to Live Forever is funny in a way that will make you repeatedly laugh out loud, uplifting and extraordinarily powerful. Sally Nicholls has a rare talent. I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone.

Beautiful, moving ...
I read this with trepidation, I know the premise of the book and was worried that it was going to be a depressing look at a child's struggle with leukaemia.
I'm a nurse and I have looked after lots of people with this disease and have seen the great outcomes and the sad outcomes too.
This book for me 'humanised' the illness, it made me obviously sad, laugh in places, cry, but it touched my heart so much so, that I've encouraged my friends (and nursing colleagues) to read this as it lends you a deeper perspective of day to day life with a life threatening illness. It's not all pills, drips, injections and medicalisation. It's dreams, relationships and the simple joys that a single day can hold.
The best thing about this book is that it made me hug my three children even tighter than usual, feel immensely grateful for what I have and appreciate the daily struggles that my patients and families deal with.
To make you grateful for a single day is reason enough to read this book, go for it, you will not be disappointed!

Touching.
This story is the diary/school project of Sam, a boy dying of leukaemia. Once started, I lost two mornings (at work!) reading this. It is suggested reading for young teenagers but I am over 30 and well enjoyed it. I found this book sympathetic (in a boyish kind of way) and surprisingly funny. Really, really good.