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. --- from the publisher Critical Praise "Sincere. . . . A book with the genuine power to stir and comfort its readers." --Janet Maslin, The New York Times "Simply told, sentimental, and profoundly true, this is an contemporary American fable that will be cherished by a vast readership." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Fans of Tuesdays with Morrie will be delighted with this novel." --People magazine "Transcendent. . . . Albom has aimed high here, and there's a whiff of paradise as a result." --Atlanta Journal Constitution "Albom has a gift for tapping into readers' sincerely sentimental spots, and he will undoubtedly connect again here." --Cleveland Plain Dealer "Albom has the ability to make you cry in spite of yourself." --The Boston Globe "Albom has done a masterful job." --Oakland Press "There's much wisdom here . . . An earnest meditation on the intrinsic value of human life." --Los Angeles Times "This is the fable you will devour when you fall in love. This is the tale you will keep by your side when you are lost. This is the story you will turn to again and again, because it possesses the rare magic to let you see yourself and the world anew. This book is a gift to the soul." --Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club and The Bonesetter's Daughter "Anyone who loved Tuesdays with Morrie should delight in reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Mitch Albom has populated his larger-than-life tale with memorable characters and filled it with the abundant warmth and wisdom that we've come to expect from this gifted storyteller." --John Burnham Schwartz, author of Claire Marvel "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 "Deep, profound, superbly imaginative, written with the quiet eloquence of a storyteller who dares to leap into the most magical of places. This poetic book is full of lessons and hope." --James McBride, author of The Color of Water and Miracle at St. Anna "A moving flight of fantasy come to teach us that Heaven is where we finally learn what our life was about." --Harold S. Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People "In The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom lifts us to a new level. You'll find here echoes of the classics -- The Odyssey, for one -- and that puts Albom's book in the best of company." --Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes and 'Tis "One of the best books I've read. Very well written. Touching and very comforting. Makes you stop and think of how people affect each others lives under the simplest circumstances, and no matter who and what you are in life, you can always make a difference." --Maria Linsangan, book buyer, The News Group, Sacramento "I was changed by this book. It has that wonderful ring of truth that stories have which affirm the value of the individual." --Donna Cressman, Maxwell Books, DeSoto TX "A books that you find yourself thinking about days...even weeks later, reading favorite sections to others and thinking about how your own actions and choices ripple through life and affect those around you." --Julie Smith, Auntie's Bookstore, Spokane WA
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