Almost five years after the release of The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, publisher Tyndale House says it’s yanking the book from shelves immediately. This, because the “boy” and co-author of the tome, Alex Malarkey, says the book is literally malarkey because he didn’t die and thus, did not go to heaven.

The story was based on his experience as a then six-year-old, who, after being injured in a bad car crash, said he had gone up to hang out with the angels. Tyndale had called it “a supernatural encounter that will give you new insights on Heaven, angels, and hearing the voice of God.”

Now Tyndale House has confirmed to NPR that it is taking “the book and all ancillary products out of print,” because Malarkey wrote in an open letter this week that he lied about everything in the book, which was co-authored with his father, Kevin.

“I did not die. I did not go to Heaven,” Alex wrote in a letter to bookstores that carry his book. “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… Those who market these materials must be called to repent and hold the Bible as enough.”

He’s now a teenager, and his parents are divorced. His mother had already come out against the book last year, claiming the profits hadn’t been going to her son, either.

“Alex’s name and identity are being used against his wishes (I have spoken before and posted about it that Alex has tried to publicly speak out against the book), on something that he is opposed to and knows to be in error according to the Bible,” she wrote in a blog post last year.

Boy Says He Didn’t Go To Heaven; Publisher Says It Will Pull Book [NPR.org]

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