Varsity's Choice

Editor's Choice

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

By Sandy Sezto, Managing Editor

Book Title: The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Author: Mitch Albom
Publisher: Hyperion Books

“People think of heaven as a paradise garden, a place where they can float on clouds and laze in rivers and mountains. But scenery without solace is meaningless.”

Death remains the greatest mystery in our world. No one ever comes back from their afterlife and tell us what it is like in heaven. This leaves room for Mitch Albom to guide us through a journey into his heaven, which inspires millions of those who is searching for meaning in their earthly lives.

It all starts with the death of a war veteran, Eddie, in a seaside amusement park. He sacrificed himsself to save a little girl from a falling ride. All his life, he has been stuck in this park. This is where he grew up, met his love and started to make repairing rides as his life-long service.

Like the majority in modern society, he cannot find any meaning in his monotonous daily routine.

It is until the tragic death, that he finally sets out from his centre of the world, and search for explanations in his afterlife.

Five people wait for Eddie in heaven. Each one of them crossed the old man's life for a reason. One by one, they come up and explain how they have changed Eddie's path forever. There are people that he loves and hates, and even those who are complete strangers to him.

Yet, without anyone of them, Eddie's earthly life would never be complete. People are more connected than we would have thought.

As he step by step moves towards the conclusion, the questions in his seemingly meaningless life are answered. He also gets close to the truth of whether his last act has heroically saved the girl's life.

The parables in this original story may not be able to disclose the secret of heaven. Still, Albom does not disappoint his readers since his last work Tuesday with Morrie. After six years, this fiction again takes its reader into a journey of personal growth.

“This is the greatest gift God can give you: to understand what happened in your life. To have it explained. It is the peace you have been searching for.”