Alex Malarkey, the subject of the best-selling book, The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven, is suing the publisher Tyndale House.
In 2004, Malarkey was in a car accident that left him paralyzed and temporarily in a coma. He says that the story in the 2010 book about the accident, in which he went to heaven and met Jesus and God, was actually made up by his father, who is no longer living. The lawsuit says that his late father took all of the profits from the book.
The suit says, “Despite the fact that Tyndale House has made millions of dollars off Alex’s identity and an alleged autobiographical story of his life, Tyndale House paid Alex, a paralyzed young man, nothing.”
As The Christian Post notes, back in 2015, Alex wrote a letter to LifeWay stores, explaining: “I said I went to Heaven because I thought it would get me attention. When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source of truth. Anything written by man cannot be infallible.” Tyndale ended up pulling the book.
In a statement this week, Tyndale House said: “Despite the claims in Alex Malarkey’s lawsuit, Tyndale House paid all royalties that were due under the terms of our contract on his book … Tyndale took the book out of print in 2015 when Alex said that he had fabricated the entire story. Any books still available from online vendors are from third party sellers.”
