October 2014 Guest Editor Cecelia Ahern on the Five People You Meet in Heaven...
I like the writing style and this book has such a fantastic premise. The main character is an elderly man, an amusement park maintenance worker named Eddie who dies saving a young girl who’s the victim of a broken ride. Eddie goes to heaven where he meets five people who were unexpectadly instrumental in some way in his life. Each of the five people have made an impact on him, were responsible for him making particular decisions in his life as a result of knowing them. He talks with them and learns more about his life and what his true purpose on earth was. A lovely concept that makes you think about the influential people in your own life.
THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN is a wonderfully moving fable that addresses the meaning of life, and life after death, in the poignant way that made TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE such an astonishing book. The protagonist is an elderly amusement park maintenance worker named Eddie who, while operating a ride called the 'Free Fall', dies while trying to save a young girl who gets in the way of a falling cart that hurtles to earth. Eddie goes to heaven, where he meets five people who were unexpectedly instrumental in some way in his life. While each guide takes him through heaven, Eddie learns a little bit more about what his time on earth meant, what he was supposed to have learned, and what his true purpose on earth was. Throughout there are dramatic flashbacks where we see scenes from his troubled childhood, his years in the army in the Philippines jungle, and with his first and only love, his wife Marguerite.
‘Mitch Albom lifts us up 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
About Mitch Albom
Mitch Albom is an internationally bestselling author, screenwriter, playwright, and award-winning journalist. He is the author of seven consecutive number one New York Times bestsellers and has sold over forty million copies of his books in forty-seven languages worldwide, including Tuesdays with Morrie, which is one of the bestselling memoirs of all time.
Albom also works as a columnist and broadcaster and has founded nine charities in Detroit and operated an orphanage in Port Au Prince, Haiti. He lives with his wife, Janine, in Michigan
