It’s been a long time since I picked up a book, let alone picked up a book and devoured in one sitting. The Five People You Meet in Heaven, however, was something I guess I needed at this stage in my life. We’ve had several bereavements in the family over the past few months and it’s been really difficult to accept the loss of those we’ve had to say goodbye to in such a short amount of time.
The answer to what happens to us after we dies is something I’m sure a lot of us wonder about, at least once in our lives. Books that discuss this subject really peak my interest and I find them comforting a lot of the times. The Five People You Meet in Heaven was no exception.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
5 out of 5
Dates read: 11 December 2021
Length: 208 pages
First published in 2003 by Little, Brown
Recommended by: The Bookshelf Raiders
Available to order from Amazon, Waterstones, Bookdepository
Trigger warnings: Death, afterlife, roller-coaster accident
Blurb: On his eighty-third birthday, Eddie, a lonely war veteran, 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.
My thoughts: We join old Eddie on his journey to “heaven” where he meets five people who somehow impacted his life, or whose lives he played a significant role in, each of them teaching him a lesson. Although the life lessons weren’t groundbreaking the book offered yet another beautiful version of what could happen to us/our lost loved ones after we leave this Earth, and offered comfort. And for me, that’s all I could really ask from a book.
Lost love is still love, Eddie. It takes a different form, that’s all. You can’t see their smile or bring them food or tousle their hair or move them around a dance floor. But when those senses weaken, another heightens. Memory. Memory becomes our partner. You nurture it. You hold it. You dance with it. Life has to end,” she said. “Love doesn’t.
When I first heard about The Five People Who You Meet in Heaven I added it to my wishlist immediately. I really seem to enjoy the dark subject that is one way or another flipped on its head and made into a beautifully comforting story instead.
The pacing of the book was great, I really enjoyed how easy it was to read and follow. The author’s style was simple, yet pleasant. But above all else what I loved most about this particular book was how the “idea of heaven” was presented. Instead of being this mystical place, it is suggested to be the peace you feel after meeting the five significant people and unraveling the meaning of your life. I don’t know – just a beautiful thought.
I would recommend if grief and death is something you’re comfortable with reading and pondering over.
Kat x
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