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The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Hardcover)
by Mitch Albom
| Category:
Fiction, Bestsellers, Original books |
| Market price: ¥ 218.00
MSL price:
¥ 208.00
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Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
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MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A captivating, heartfelt and beautiful read that will bring you genuine wisdom as it opens your heart. A small book with a big message - A profound message brings you the true meaning of life, and "why" certain people are in our lives. |
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Author: Mitch Albom
Publisher: Hyperion
Pub. in: September, 2003
ISBN: 0786868716
Pages: 198
Measurements: 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00947
Other information: ISBN-13: 9780786868711
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- Awards & Credential -
This book ranks the #964 in Books out of millions on Amazon.com as of February 12, 2007 and the author Mitch Albom is the author of the #1 international bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie. |
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- MSL Picks -
Mitch Albom writes with heart, soul, truth and meaning. This profound book brings you the true meaning of life, and "why" certain people are in our lives. Through the poignant stories told, you will learn that even the smallest acts from the heart make a profound difference. You will learn compassion and understanding for those whose role in your life you have had difficulty understanding "why" they are in your life to begin with. You will learn that even in Heaven you are loved, and how your deeds on Earth make more of a difference than you may realize.
The book starts right off with the reader knowing that Eddie is about to die. He's a simple man, worked nearly his entire life for the beachside amusement park called Ruby's Pier, and spent his time maintaining all the rides at this park. He's in his 80's, lives alone and has lived alone for quite a long time. He talks about his dearly beloved Marguerite, but his co-workers have never met her. Basically, outside of the children that come to the pier and his coworkers, Eddie is alone in the world. Eddie's life flashes before our eyes, the years rolling by as we see him "celebrating" one birthday after another. These birthday scenes are significant, showing us what Eddie's life was all about, from the time he was five years old, till many years later in his old age. At the same time, we also watch his death, how his co-workers react to it, and the preparations that take place for the funeral. The third story line is what happens after Eddie dies. He is taken to what he thinks is heaven, and before he can "pass", he is to meet five people that he made some important difference in their lives. He doesn't even know some of these people. But as their stories unfold, Eddie finds out why they were chosen to be his five people, how he touched their lives, and yet he cannot see why his life was so important, to them or to anyone. Not until he meets that last person, the fifth person in heaven. For that is how Eddie lived his life. He feels that his life was unimportant; that it meant nothing whatsoever to anyone. He feels his life was a waste and that he probably wishes he had done things differently.
One point of the story is that what appear to be simple situations often mask profound truths and unexpected complexity. The author manages to combine the same elements of seeming simplicity and complexity within this story. The simple language employed is yet perfectly evocative of the possibilities of heaven juxtaposed against the often mundane realities of life. Indeed, many of the diverse aspects of life are touched upon, including the effect of war - not only on the participants but on the noncombatants as well, parental love and expectations for their children, the meaning of friendship and the role of duty in our lives. No person is unimportant on this earth. We are all here for a reason, for a purpose, even though it may be so small that it is hard to see.
"People think of heaven as a paradise garden a place where they can float on clouds and laze in rivers and mountains. But scenery without solace is meaningless. This is the greatest gift God can give you: to understand what happened in your life. To have it explained. It is the place you have been searching for." Albom reminds us throughout this wonderful tale, that there are no random acts, that we all are indeed connected. The circle is never ending.
Target readers:
General readers
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Mitch Albom is the author of the #1 international bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie. A nationally syndicated columnist for the Detroit Free Press and a nationally syndicated radio host of his own show, Albom has also been named the top sports columnist in the nation 13 times by the Associated Press Sports Editors of America - the highest honor in his field. He is the founder of The Dream Fund, a charity which helps underprivileged youth study art, and of A Time to Help, a volunteer program. Albom serves on the boards of numerous charities.
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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?"
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| View all 15 comments |
Leonardo (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-12 00:00>
This was truely an inspiring book. Once you pick it up it's hard to put it down. I found myself reading the entire book in one sitting. The story of an elderly man who see's himself as not accomplishing anything with his life, (a feeling that I believe many people have felt at some point in their lives) and yet when Eddie dies he encounters 5 people who help him realize that his life indeed did have meaning and did have an affect on others. As many of us have heard, we have all been placed here on earth for a reason, and this book goes beyond that and gives examples. Picture this, you're five and you're playing ball with your friends, the ball rolls out into the road and you chase it, a car abruptly stops, you get your ball and go back to playing with your friends. How does this affect someone's life. Read the book to find out.
A truely great book with no loose ends. Mitch Albom has done an amazing job with this book... Highly recommended.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-12 00:00>
The magic to Mitch Albom's approach is that he touches upon something that we all think about - What happens after we die? No one has definitively been able to answer the question and what Albom has done is to take the comforting reply to that question (we go to heaven), and add A Christmas Carol story-twist to it. Heaven isn't necessarily filled with rolling hills and bon-bons. It's about making sense out of your life and bringing it to its natural closure. And in many ways, Albom's way of dealing with death is quite comforting for me. I've always had a fear about dying. At one time in my life, it was about the act of dying. Would I be in a lot of pain? Would I be by myself? Would I die of natural causes? Would something horrible happen to me? Then, it proceeded to this helpless feeling of never being able to be again. I couldn't imagine not being. Not touching. Feeling. Hugging. Kissing. Smelling. Death - before, during, and after - is scary. Albom's approach isn't totally unique but it is theraputic. He has a way of making sense of it all. |
Fran (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-12 00:00>
My daughter Nita, who is 61, gave me this book to read. She said that it was beautifully written, suspenseful, and very insightful. She enjoys keeping audio versions of current books in her car for more peaceful travel. Nita listened to the unabridged CD of this book and found herself driving further or remaining in the garage to catch the end of a chapter. The book was compelling enough that she made her last drive of the day to Barnes and Nobel to buy me the book version
The story is an excellent read. It was amazing to see how the author thoughtfully crafted the Five People One Meets in Heaven, into a wonderfully insightful page turner. I was sorry when the book ended, but it ended where it should.
I had not read Mr. Albom's "Tuesdays with Morrie" but am I ready to buy it. Mr. Album writes realistically about the personal feelings of his subject... the pain, reflections, and feelings that one's life was perhaps never fully lived. As the subject is confronted with the five people that he is destined to meet in heaven, he finds wisdom, peace, and a real understanding of all that has happened in his life.
If you would like to know how each of our lives is intertwined with others, read this book. You will want to share it with a friend. |
Danielle (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-12 00:00>
This is clearly the kind of novel I would read after a very harried week at work -and well, that's exactly when I decided to breeze through this touching little story. Yes, as others have stated, it is a simple and straight-forward narrative, but we can all relate to the very questions it poses. And it brings a sense of - at least for me-asking those very questions:
What kind of life am I living? What kind of person have I been?
And for this, I think this is a worth-while read.
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