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  1. $19.60 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

by Mitch Albom

The Five People You Meet in Heaven Cover

Review-a-Day   (What is Review-a-Day?)

"It's easy to feel an affinity for this simplistic, folksy bathos; it's easier, after all, to act for the sake of heaven than to make the considered and nuanced moral choices that really confront us in life. And it is here that Albom fails. His character makes no moral choices, he does not ponder the depths of his existence, he is merely a reactive stick figure that has to go to cotton-candy heaven to learn that his life had meaning. It's single-serve religion for a drive-thru, strip-mall, mega-church kind of country." Sacha Zimmerman, The New Republic (read the entire New Republic review)

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

From the author of the number one New York Times bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie comes this long-awaited follow-up, an enchanting, beautifully crafted novel that explores a mystery only heaven can unfold.

Eddie is a grizzled war veteran who feels trapped in a meaningless life of fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. As the park has changed over the years — from the Loop-the-Loop to the Pipeline Plunge — so, too, has Eddie changed, from optimistic youth to embittered old age. His days are a dull routine of work, loneliness, and regret.

Then, on his 83rd birthday, Eddie dies in a tragic accident, trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. With his final breath, he feels two small hands in his — and then nothing. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden, but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people who were in it. These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed your path forever.

One by one, Eddie's five people illuminate the unseen connections of his earthly life. As the story builds to its stunning conclusion, Eddie desperately seeks redemption in the still-unknown last act of his life: Was it a heroic success or a devastating failure? The answer, which comes from the most unlikely of sources, is as inspirational as a glimpse of heaven itself.

In The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom gives us an astoundingly original story that will change everything you've ever thought about the afterlife — and the meaning of our lives here on earth. With a timeless tale, appealing to all, this is a book that readers of fine fiction, and those who loved Tuesdays with Morrie, will treasure.

Review:

"Sincere....A book with the genuine power to stir and comfort its readers." The New York Times

Review:

"Simply told, sentimental, and profoundly true, this is an contemporary American fable that will be cherished by a vast readership." Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Review:

"Fans of Tuesdays with Morrie will be delighted with this novel." People magazine

Review:

"A sweet book that makes you smile but is not gooey with overwrought sentiment." Booklist

Review:

"Transcendent....Albom has aimed high here, and there's a whiff of paradise as a result." Atlanta Journal Constitution

Review:

"This is a lovely book, sweet, entertaining and wise. What a gutsy, surprising follow-up to Morrie." Anne Lamott, author of Traveling Mercies and Blue Shoe

Synopsis:

From the author of the "New York Times" bestseller "Tuesdays with Morrie" comes a novel that explores the unexpected connections of readers' lives and the idea that heaven is more than a place--it's an answer._Accelerated Reader: Reading Level 4.7, 6 Points.

Synopsis:

Eddie is a wounded war veteran, an old man who has lived, in his mind, an uninspired life. His job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him, as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakes in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a destination. It's a place where your life is explained to you by five people, some of whom you knew, others who may have been strangers. One by one, from childhood to soldier to old age, Eddie's five people revisit their connections to him on earth, illuminating the mysteries of his "meaningless" life, and revealing the haunting secret behind the eternal question: "Why was I here?"

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
desi_young, November 4, 2008 (view all comments by desi_young)
A story to make you think of who your five people in heaven are and how you've impacted others in your everyday life without knowing it. If the final revelation by Eddies fifth person doesn't bring a tear to your eye, you must be a heartless cold person. The movie was good and faithful to the book, but reading the book is way better as it plays out in your head and imagination.
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(5 of 6 readers found this comment helpful)
jengem, September 27, 2006 (view all comments by jengem)
This book, "The five people you meet in heaven" by Mitch Albom, was very powerful to me. I coundn't help but love the way it made you think about the random people who have changed your life without you even seeing how much they did for you. Ths book makes a wonderful gift to give to family and friends and It is great to keep on your own book shelf. Please go and pick it up- it really can impower you.
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(9 of 14 readers found this comment helpful)
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780786868711
Author:
Albom, Mitch
Publisher:
Hyperion Books
Location:
New York
Subject:
Death
Subject:
Psychological
Subject:
Psychological fiction
Subject:
Aged men
Subject:
Future life
Subject:
Heaven
Subject:
Amusement parks
Subject:
Amusement rides.
Subject:
Accident victims
Subject:
Older men
Subject:
General Fiction
Edition Number:
1st ed.
Series Volume:
96-19
Publication Date:
January 2003
Binding:
Hardcover
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
196
Dimensions:
7.50x5.30x.74 in. .58 lbs.
Age Level:
from Al to l0

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