ANOTHER FIVE DAYS tells the story of war hero, Al Sokratis, who begins his day by being asked to be the Best Man at his grandson’s wedding, only to end it in the afterlife after he was hit and killed by a texting driver while pulling a stranger from a burning vehicle. Because of the heroic way he died as well as the way he lived his life, Al is rewarded by being given the opportunity to re-live any five days of his life. They can be days he enjoyed and wants to experience all over again, days in which he had regrets and wants to make amends, or days in which he tries to help others and change the course of history. ANOTHER FIVE DAYS takes us on a magical tour of Woodstock, Vietnam, the NASA Space Program, and the 1986 World Series, introducing us to heroes as well as almost heroes, people whose lives might have turned out vastly differently were it not for the blink of an eye. Above all else, it is a love story as Al desperately tries to find a way to reunite with his departed wife.
I have to admit I was hesitant to write this book. Any time you have some measure of success with an original story, writing a sequel to it seems daunting. Could it possibly live up to the original? Not that the original Five Days was War and Peace, The Great Gatsby or The Catcher in the Rye in terms of influence on the American literary world. But it did have its share of loyal fans that I didn’t want to disappoint.
In the end, I decided that I would only write the follow up as a stand alone book—meaning the idea remained the same as in the original, but the characters and story were all new. And only, if I thought I could create a character as compelling and interesting as the Mike Postman character in the original. Whether I did or not is obviously up to you to decide. What I love about this series is that it enables me to take trips down memory lane, incorporating people and days from my own life, while also sending me on a journey through days in history that I’d previously only read about or seen clips of on television.
Should you decide to take the journey with me, I hope that you enjoy the trip while thinking about which days you would choose, or which days from history you would change if you could…
AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE, March 17, 2020 Matt Micros