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{{Infobox book
| name = The Five People You Meet in Heaven
| image = [[File:MitchAlbom TheFivePeopleYouMeetInHeaven.jpg|200px|A dark blue book cover. "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" covers the top half and "Author of the international bestseller: 'Tuesdays With Morrie'" is across the bottom. Both are in white text. In the middle is a white Ferris wheel sitting on a red banner reading "Mitch Albom".]]
| image_caption = Cover of the novel's first edition
| author = [[Mitch Albom]]
| cover_artist =
| country = [[United States]]
| genre = [[Religious fiction]]
| publisher = [[Hyperion Books|Hyperion]]
| pub_date = 2003
| media_type = Print
| pages = 208
| isbn = 0-7868-6871-6
| oclc = 52619795
| dewey =
| congress = PS3601.L335
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}

'''''The Five People You Meet in Heaven''''' is a [[novel]] by [[Mitch Albom]]. It recounts the life and death of a maintenance man named Eddie. After dying while trying to save a little girl, Eddie finds himself in the afterlife where he encounters five people who significantly affected his life.

''The Five People You Meet in Heaven'' was published in 2003 by [[Hyperion (publisher)|Hyperion]] and remained on the [[New York Times Best Seller list]] for 95 weeks.

==Synopsis==

=== Storyline ===
	The novel opens at Ruby Pier on Eddie's 83rd birthday. He goes about his normal routine until one of the rides breaks. Eddie gives a fellow worker, Dominquez, instructions on how to fix the ride; however, one of the carts breaks free from the ride and falls to the pier. Eddie jumps out of the way and tries to push a little girl out of the path of the falling cart. Eddie does not get out of the way in time and is killed by the falling cart.
	Eddie travels to heaven and meets his first person, the Blue Man. The Blue Man informs Eddie that he is going to meet five people in heaven whose lives he has somehow affected. The Blue Man tells Eddie how he is indirectly responsible for his death: When Eddie was a child, he and Joe were playing with a ball that bounced into the street. Eddie ran into the street to get the ball as the Blue Man was driving by. The Blue Man swerved out of the way, terrified that he would hit Eddie. Eddie ran safely back out of the street but the Blue Man was still extremely anxious having almost hit him. His anxiety caused him to drive recklessly and hit another car, which killed him. The Blue Man teaches Eddie his first lesson, which is that events are not random and lives intersect for a certain reason.
	After this lesson, Eddie finds himself back on a war ground, which resembled that on which he fought during WWII. There, he meets his second person in heaven, his former war Captain. During WWII Eddie fought in the Philippines and he, the captain and a few other soldiers were taken as prisoners of war. Through a juggling act, Eddie is able to distract the captors so he and the other prisoners can kill them and escape. When they leave the camp, they decide to burn it down for revenge. Eddie swears he sees a small shadow crawling in the flames and runs in after it. The other soldiers tried to get Eddie out of the fire; however, he was so insistent that he saw a child in the fire that he kept trying to get in the hut. The Captain did not want Eddie to die, or to leave him behind, so he shot him in the leg so the others could get him out of the fire. This is how Eddie got the injury that made him very depressed for the rest of his life.

	The Captain teaches Eddie the second lesson of sacrifice. Eddie finds out that the Captain died trying to make sure the path was clear for the rest of his men to cross. He says that he sacrificed Eddie's leg to get him out of the fire alive, and also that he sacrificed his own life to save the lives of Eddie and the soldiers.
	Eddie then finds himself in a mountain range. He finds a single diner at the bottom of the mountains and through the window he can see his father sitting at a table. He meets Ruby who tells him that it is her for who the pier is named. She shows Eddie a horrifying scene where Mickey Shea almost hurt his mother; Eddie's father saw what happened and chased Mickey Shea to, possibly, kill him. Mickey falls off the pier into the sea and Eddie's father saves his life. This is the night where Eddie's father caught pneumonia which later killed him. Ruby allows Eddie to see that his father was being loyal to one of his best friends. Ruby teaches Eddie to let go of the anger he has for his father. Eddie does this by visiting him in the diner and telling him "It's fixed”.
	Eddie blinks and finds himself in a room whose doors lead to different wedding receptions. Eddie walks through the different receptions and meets his fourth person, Marguerite. She and Eddie talk for a long while, as this is the first time they have been reunited since her death. For his fourth lesson, Marguerite teaches Eddie about the power of love; she states that even though people pass away, their love does not die. Marguerite tells Eddie that she loved him even after her death and that true love endures forever.
	The final person Eddie meets in heaven is a young Asian girl, named Tala. Tala explains to Eddie that he killed her in a fire; Eddie realizes that he had seen a child in the burning hut in the Philippines during the War. Tala's skin suddenly becomes marked with burns and scars. Eddie washes her free of all her burns and injuries from the fire. For his last lesson, Tala allows Eddie to see that his place in life was to be at Ruby Pier keeping the children safe.

==Characters==

===Eddie===
He is the head of maintenance at an amusement park named Ruby Pier. He is 83 years old. He is a "squat, white-haired old man, with a short neck, a barrel chest, thick arms, and a faded army tattoo on his right shoulder."<ref>(Albom 2)</ref>

===Marguerite===
Eddie's wife who he met at Ruby Pier and married after returning from World War II. Eddie would always remember "her waving over her shoulder, her dark hair falling over one eye."<ref>(Albom 9)</ref>  Marguerite has "olive skin" and "dark coffee eyes."<ref>(Albom 151-52)</ref>  She dies at the age of forty-seven<ref>(Albom 168)</ref> of a brain tumor.<ref>(Albom 162)</ref>

===Joseph Corvelzchik, The Blue Man===
Joseph's skin had been turned blue when he was a boy because of repeated ingestion of silver nitrate, thought to be an effective medication at the time.  Handicapped by this disfigurement, Joseph eventually made a life for himself at Ruby Pier.  Joseph is a "middle-aged man with narrow, stopped shoulders, naked from the waist up. His belly saged over his belt. His hair was closely cropped. His lips were thin and his face was long and drawn."<ref>(Albom 31)</ref> He dies of a heart attack because of Eddie,when he tried to get a ball of the streets.<ref>(Albom 44)</ref>

===The Captain===
Eddie's commanding officer at war.  He has a "full head of dark hair" and looked to be "only in his 30s."<ref>(Albom 92)</ref>  The Captain saved Eddie's life by shooting him in the leg.<ref>(Albom 88)</ref>  He died by stepping on a land mine while checking to ensure there was a clear path ahead for his men.<ref>(Albom 90)</ref>

===Ruby===
A woman for whom Ruby Pier is named by her fiance Emile. Ruby's face was "gaunt, with sagging cheeks, rose-colored lipstick, and tightly pulled-back whit hair."<ref>(Albom 110)</ref> She wore "wine-rimmed spectacles over narrow blue eyes."<ref>(Albom 110)</ref> She wore "a dress made of silk and chiffon with a bib-like bodice stitched with white beads and topped with a velvet bow just below her neck."<ref>(Albom 110)</ref> Her skirt had "a rhinestone buckle and the snaps and hooks up the side" while also holding a "parasol with both hands."<ref>(Albom 110)</ref> She was a widow in her fifties.<ref>(Albom 123)</ref>

===Emile===
Ruby's husband, who also created the original Ruby Pier.  He wore "a chalk-stripe suit and a derby hat."<ref>(Albom 114)</ref> He had neatly cut dark hair and a mustache that covered a constant smile.<ref>(Albom 114)</ref>  Emile was known for "his heavy, confident laughter"<ref>(Albom 114)</ref> and being "a spender and a risk taker."<ref>(Albom 115)</ref> He was injured in a big fire trying to save Ruby Pier from being destroyed.<ref>(Albom 122)</ref>

===Joe===
Eddie's older brother, who Eddie stood up for him when they were boys at the pier. Joe had "flat feet"<ref>(Albom 78)</ref> and known as a "good swimmer."<ref>(Albom 107)</ref>

===Eddie's mother===
Eddie's mother was known for her "tenderness" towards Eddie and Joe.<ref>(Albom 104)</ref>  She lived in a daze after the death of Eddie's father.<ref>(Albom 127)</ref>

===Eddie's father===
He abused Eddie his entire life. He smoked cigarettes<ref>(Albom 19)</ref> and was a card player.<ref>(Albom 23)</ref> Eddie's father was remembered for his "discipline,"<ref>(Albom 104)</ref> "violence,"<ref>(Albom 106)</ref> "denial of affection"<ref>(Albom 108)</ref> and "silence."<ref>(Albom 109)</ref>  He dies at the age of fifty-six of loyalty and pneumonia.<ref>(Albom 138)</ref>

===Mickey Shea===
Mickey Shea is a family friend.  He worked with Eddie's father "fixing rides at Ruby Pier."<ref>(Albom 23)</ref> Mickey is "fat, wears suspenders and is always singing Irish songs."<ref>(Albom 23)</ref>

===Dominguez===
Dominguez is Eddie's friend and coworker at Ruby Pier.  He is "a lanky, bony-cheeked young man."<ref>(Albom 5)</ref> He is planning to go to Mexico with his wife Theresa.<ref>(Albom 6)</ref>

===Willie===
Willie works the Freddy's Free Fall at Ruby Pier.<ref>(Albom 15)</ref>

===Amy or Annie===
Amy or Annie is the "little girl with a pipe-cleaner animal."<ref>(Albom 18)</ref> She is lying on the "ride's mental base" that one of Freddy's Free Fall's carts comes crashing down on.<ref>(Albom 17)</ref> Eddie saves her by pushing her legs.<ref>(Albom 192)</ref>

===Tala===
Tala is a young girl Eddie sees in a burning hut. She is a filipina, maybe five or six years old with a beautiful cinnamon complexion, hair the color of dark plum, a small flat nose, full lips that spread joyfully over her gapped teeth, and the most arresting eyes."<ref>(Albom 185)</ref>

==Allusions/References to Other Works==
There are several instances where Eddie hears the opening lyrics of [[You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)]] in memory of his wife, Marguerite.

==Themes==
''The Five People You Meet in Heaven'' focuses on the "interconnectedness of all our lives."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Grossman|first=Lev|title=Words of Paradise|journal=Time|year=2003|volume=162|issue=15|pages=82|accessdate=4 March 2012}}</ref> Throughout Eddie's journey through Heaven meeting his five people, he learns that everyone is connected in some way or form in life experiences even if they were not the ones who met the person, but is the one related to that person.  

The novel also explains how the "impossibility of knowing the consequences of our actions in the grand scheme of things."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Grossman|first=Lev|title=Words of Paradise|journal=Time|year=2003|volume=162|issue=15|pages=82|accessdate=4 March 2012}}</ref> The first, third and fifth person Eddie meets in Heaven all got their place in his line-up for reasons that Eddie did not realize at the moment of the incidents how there were two sides that when brought together brings the full clear picture upfront. There only needs to be "some quietly powerful glimpses of life's everyday meaning: the meaning of persons and events, of the impact that we have on so many others without even knowing it" for Albom's novel to stand out for it's interpretation and take on this.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kossmann|first=Patricia|title=Of Many Things|journal=America|year=2003|volume=189|issue=20|pages=2|accessdate=4 March 2012}}</ref>

== Film ==
A made-for-television film adaptation of the novel, starring [[Jon Voight]] as Eddie, was released in 2004 and is available on DVD. Aside from a few details about Eddie's life and a more chronological telling of the story, the film is very faithful to the book.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://mitchalbom.com/books/node/3874 ''The Five People You Meet in Heaven''] at Albom's Official Website
* {{iblist title|id=19025|title=The Five People You Meet in Heaven}}
* {{imdb title|id=0400435|title=The Five People You Meet in Heaven}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Five People You Meet In Heaven, The}}
[[Category:2003 novels]]
[[Category:2004 television films]]
[[Category:21st-century American novels]]
[[Category:American television films]]
[[Category:Films based on novels]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Faith-based literature]]

[[it:Le cinque persone che incontri in cielo]]
[[pl:Pięć osób, które spotkamy w niebie]]
[[pt:As Cinco Pessoas Que Encontramos no Céu]]
[[zh:在天堂遇見的五個人]]