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The Five People You Meet in Heaven is written by Mitch Albom and was published in 2003. Mitch Albom is the author of the bestseller "Tuesdays with Morrie" a wonderful true story which I also thoroughly recommend.

The author was prompted to write this novel in tribute to his Uncle Edward who used to speak "of a night in hospital when he awoke to see the souls of his departed loved ones sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting for him..... Everyone has an idea of heaven, as do most religions, and they should all be respected. The version represented here is only a guess, a wish, in some ways, that my uncle, and others like him - people who felt unimportant here on earth - realise, finally, how much they mattered and how they were loved."

This novel is however fictional and centres on the main character Eddie. Eddie is a mechanic at an amusement park on a pier who dies trying to save a little girl from a falling cart from one of the rides. The first chapter begins with an end, the end to Eddies life on earth and tells us what happened to Eddie in the last hour of his life. Mitch Albom tells us that "All endings are also beginnings. We just don't know it at the time." Next thing is Eddie finds himself in heaven but it isn't quite how he imagined. He begins another journey where he meets five people who have all played some part in his life and it is their job to explain to him the meaning of his life. The people he meets are not necessarily the people he expects but all have something important to teach Eddie to help him understand his life and ultimately to find peace.

The author flashes back to the past to give us more information about Eddie and to help us understand how he became the man he was. He does this by describing his birthdays through the past, he shows us 15 of them including his 83rd the day he dies. The author writes these in italics making it clear that these are in the past, this is a technique he used in his previous book, I like this as there is no mistaking what is the past and what is the present.

Eddie appears a loner in this novel. We learn that he was married but his wife died and they had no children. Eddie had a strained relationship with his father, a man who is violent, gambles and shows little affection towards his son. Only after his death does he learn more about his father and is able to move on. He has an injured leg from a war wound which seems to trouble him. He has worked for most of his life on Ruby Pier maintaining the rides, children

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