Tyndale House is pulling Alex and Kevin Malarkey's 2010 bestseller The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven after Alex Malarkey recanted his story about visiting heaven during a two-month coma in 2004, when he was six years-old. The publisher told NPR that it plans to take "the book and all ancillary products out of print."
NPR reports that Alex Malarkey "wrote an open letter to retailer LifeWay and others who sell Christian books and religious materials," saying he did not die or go to heaven. "I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention," wrote Malarkey.
In his letter, Malarkey also writes that "people have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough....Those who market these materials must be called to repent and hold the Bible as enough."
According to Tyndale's description of the book, Alex Malarkey and his father, Kevin Malarkey, were in a car crash in 2004 which paralyzed Alex, and put him into a coma. He woke "with an incredible story to share," including "meeting and talking to Jesus."
In PW's recap of 2010's bestsellers, we reported that The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven sold 112,386 copies that year, its first on sale.
