Geller spins a strange tale

21st March 1998
The Evening Telegraph (Peterborough)

BOOKS

by Alex Gordon

ELLA Wallis, aged 14, just wants to be a normal teenager.

But as she hits puberty strange things begin to happen to her that make her stand out from the crowd.

Because she is different she is bullied at school and her strictly religious father begins to think she is possessed by demons.

Her problems come to a head when strange phenomenon start happening – windows shatter at her school.

At home a birthday cake flies from the table and splatters onto the carpet – angering her father.

He calls in his preacher brother who arranges for the demons to be forced from Ella during an elaborate exorcism.

But what happens shocks her family – Ella is seen to lift from the floor.

Days later Ella’s uncle writes about the extraordinary incident in his parish magazine.

A bored local newspaper journalist picks up on the story and before long Ella is thrust into the whirlwind centre of a media frenzy

ELLA (Headline £16.99) is the first novel by Uri Geller, who has drawn on his own pyschic experiences to breathe life into a beautiful yet terrifying account of the Second Coming.

The shy teenager becomes the centre of the whole world’s hopes for the next Millennium and the only person she has to turn to is freelance journalist Peter Guntarson, who strikes up a psychic rapport with Ella.

She is terrified of her overbearing father, who wants to use his daughter to make millions, and her mother is of little use because of her wont to blot out reality by hitting the bottle. It seems that everyone wants a piece of Ella’s magic and she believes Peter is the only one with her best interests at heart.

But before long he has Ella under lock and key away from the prying eyes of the media. Her life involves praying in a darkened cell-like room, while Peter lives an extravagant lifestyle with every whim catered for by a gang of disciples.

The crux comes when Peter moves her to the Holy Land – Israel. In one last ditch attempt to put Ella back in the media eye Peter decides there is only one way forward – he must die so that Ella can resurrect him.

A powerful story of beauty, love and an overwhelming desire to help the sick and needy.

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