A Book of Angels

A Book of Angels

Preface
to the 2011 Edition

Twenty years ago, when A Book of Angels was first published in the United States, no one had any idea what a sensation it would create. Even today I marvel at its effect, as people bought ten and twelve copies and gave them to friends, who in turn bought ten and twelve copies to give to theirs. A friend of mine saw copies in a Hong Kong bookstore, and the book has sold in something like twenty-four languages, including Croatian, Finnish, Polish, Latvian, Japanese, Russian, Korean, and most recently Chinese. Chinese? It leaves me humbled.
Now I have the privilege of speaking and giving workshops all over the United States and in many countries abroad. And all because of this one book. I have seen the book influence people and reshape their image of the world; and to participate in that with my workshops and talks, offering hope and strength, is no small thing when the media bombard us daily with hysterical reports of disasters everywhere.
Many compliments have been given to A Book of Angels. I remember two in particular. The first came from a priest, who told his congregation in a sermon that everyone should have two books beside their bed: the Bible and A Book of Angels. The second came from a stranger who informed me that her mother while dying held this book in her hands.
It is therefore with deep appreciation and gratitude that I mark this new edition of A Book of Angels. May it act as a blessing to its readers. May it serve as a catalyst for your own stories of inexplicable coincidences and intervention, those moments when a dream or voice, a serendipitous confluence of actions, or perhaps the simple nudge of intuition, shows that Something Out There is watching over us.
How do we know the angels are real and not the product of an overwrought imagination? This is the huge question. I can only tell you that all the events described in the book you hold in your hand are true. They happened either to me or to someone so close that I know they weren’t lying. I have no explanation for them. Often I’m left baffled—disbelieving in the face of evidence. But when you hear of some inexplicable event—invisible hands, an external voice; when you see the face of a man light up as he recounts the improbable series of coincidences that saved his life, or that of his child; when you feel yourself uplifted and inspired by the Divine, mantled in light, warmth, safety, joy, your heart bows down before a reality that cannot be explained.
Many years have passed since I wrote this book, and I have written others since—novels, plays, nonfiction—on a range of subjects. None has had the effect of A Book of Angels. I’m amused (and a little disconcerted) at being called “the Angel Lady,” not certain if it’s a designation I quite know how to handle. But this I tell you. We humans are also expressions of the Divine. We are formed of the spark of Divinity.

From A Book of Angels by Sophy Burnham.
Copyright (c) 1990, 2004 by Sophy Burnham.