How many times in your life have you wished for a do-over? To go back and have a conversation again, knowing what you know now? Maybe say the right thing or not do the wrong thing? We probably think it would make all the difference in the world.

But would it? We’ll probably never know. Alfie Logan, the main character in Mitch Albom’s newest bestseller, Twice, gets to find out. It seems he has inherited a gift (or is it a curse) from his mother. With a mere thought, he can go back and relive any period of time again–but only once (more about that later). He accidentally learns he has this ability on the day his mother, who is seriously ill, dies. He thinks she’ll be fine alone for a bit when his father tells him to stay with her, so he goes out to play, only to find when he gets home that she passed away while he was gone. Racked with guilt, as he lies in bed that night, he prays over and over for the chance to go back and do it again, to stay with her and possibly save her, never even considering the possibility that his prayer would be answered. Imagine his shock when he awakes to his father’s request that Alfie stay with his mother while he goes out for a while. In stunned disbelief, Alfie goes into his parents’ room to find his mother there, alive, though still definitely not well. He stares in incredulity. His mother, a sweet, perceptive woman realizes what’s happening and asks if he’s perhaps been here before.

What follows is an unbelievable tale of a life lived, not twice but many times. Just like his mother, and her mother before her, Alfie needs only to think back to a specific time and mutter the word twice, and he rewinds to live that period over again. The only rule, or so he thinks, is he can’t live the same event multiple times. As he goes, though, he finds there are other restrictions. Not so much rules as natural consequences. Doing things for overt personal gain, such as for money, just don’t seem to work out. And love is tricky. I’ll leave it at that.

I love this book. One of the things I like most about it is how real and decidedly unromanticized Alfie is. There are many times in the story where he, like we all are, is just plain unlikeable. He’s selfish and shortsighted. And yet, his heart is good. And it grows as time goes on as he learns how his actions affect others. Even at his worst, I find myself rooting for him, often trying to convince him not to do what he’s about to do, knowing he won’t listen.

There’s only one problem with the story, and it’s the same problem that every time-travel tale faces. And regardless of how it’s couched, this is a time-travel story. He can only move back, but he does travel through time. The problem is that it can’t follow its own rules or the plot breaks down. The one hard and fast rule is that he can’t go back and relive the same event twice, but in reality he can. He just has to pick a different point in time, farther back, and he does indeed relive that moment over and over. In fact, at one point toward the end of the story, he states he has no idea how old he really is, having relived most of his life, all the way back to the day his mother died, multiple times.

So, how do I deal with this problem? The short answer is, I don’t. I acknowledge it and then I ignore it. In literary and theater circles, it’s called suspension of disbelief. It could never happen, and no one is saying it ever could. The question to ask isn’t could it be possible to go back and live your life over again. The question is how would a person react when faced with that ability. And I feel like Alfie reacted the way a lot of us would. And that’s what makes the story so gripping. We can see ourselves in Alfie. We tell ourselves we wouldn’t make his mistakes, and maybe we wouldn’t. We’d make different mistakes, but, like Alfie, we’d like to think we’d learn from them, and grow into better versions of ourselves. The kind who can let go of our selfishness to do the loving thing for the people in our lives.

If you’re a Mitch Albom fan, you’ll definitely love this book. If you haven’t read any of his books, this is as good a place to start as any. If you do like it, you’d serve yourself well by going back and checking out his other works. Tuesdays With Morrie should be required reading. Not for a class. Just for life. And The Five People You Meet In Heaven is gut-wrenchingly beautiful. In terms of good old emotional gut punches, though, The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto tops them all for me. Don’t read that one without at least a box of tissues. Those, and all of Albom’s books are definitely worth your time.