Coming to Terms with Our Past: The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

Book Review
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

Published in 2003 by Hyperion

This is a story about death.

It is not a simple story about coming to grips with mortality. It is about reconciling our past--the people and events that, even those that we were unaware of, shaped our lives, for better or worse.

Some non-religious readers, such as this reviewer, may be turned off by the title, but judging a book by its cover is not always wise. This wonderfully written book is both heart-warming and sad, much like the life of the protagonist and the stories of the characters connected to him. In that way, it is reminiscent of John Irving's The Cider House Rulesand Haruki Murakami's South of the Border, West of the Sun. This is truly a great novel.