The New York Times bestseller The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven told six-year-old Alex Malarkey’s story of how a car accident allowed him to see heaven before he woke up from his two-month coma. The remarkable spiritual memoir was one of Tyndale House Publishers’ most popular books, but now the major Christian publisher is being forced to pull it from shelves because Malarkey recently admitted that his whole story was a hoax.

Malarkey’s family got into a car accident in 2010, and the injuries left Alex paralyzed and in a coma which lasted for two months. When he woke up, Alex told stories of “miracles, angels, and life beyond This World,” and he and his father supposedly wrote about the experience in The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven. 

Now a teenager, Malarkey posted an open letter to Christian bookstores in which he recanted his story about the afterlife. The letter, which was posted on the Pulpit and Pen website, states, “I did not die. I did not go to Heaven.”

“I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention,” admitted Malarkey. “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.”

Several media sources are blaming the hoax on Alex’s father Kevin Malarkey, who is a Christian therapist with a counseling practice near Columbus, Ohio. An Apr. 2014 post published on a blog run by Beth Malarkey, Alex’s mother, suggests that her son wasn’t involved in writing the book at all, and states that she was never comfortable with her former husband’s choice to publish it.

“I am NOT involved with, or desire to be connected with, the book titled The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven. Yes, I am the mom of Alex Malarkey who is NOT an author, nor does he have or has he ever had an agent,” posted Beth Malarkey. “Any questions pertaining to any said experiences that my child did or did not have are for him and only him to answer if and when he desires to (or feels he is supposed to).”

Beth Malarkey also states that her son didn’t get to keep any of the proceeds from the book, which spent several years on the bestsellers list.

Todd Starowitz, public relations director of Tyndale House, told The Washington Post on Thursday evening that the publisher has “decided to take the book and related ancillary products out of print.”