I just can't praise this book enough, it's an absolute treasure of a story. Nobody knows what happens to us at the moment we die or what the process is after death (if indeed there is any process) and this book is just one take on what might happen. Please don't think that this is a depressing book about death as it's far from that. What it does to the reader is make you wonder that if there is a grain of truth or possibility of something similar to this happening, who will be the five (or more, or less) people that you will meet on your way to heaven (or wherever it is we go). It has you thinking whose lives you may have crossed, helped or played a part in, and who will be waiting for you and who will you be waiting for. I loved this book so much I gave it to my husband to read and he said it actually brought tears to his eyes it was so touching and tender. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone - it's a gem of a book.

In my 41 years on this planet, this is the book I shall traesure and read again and again. It's only 194 pages, I put it down after each person he met to think about the lesson to be learned. Everyone should read this and i believe our World would be a better place to live!!! Please buy!!

As I didn't manage to finish this book, perhaps I don't qualify to give this a rating. However a book should keep you captivated throughout and this one did not. It is absolute twaddle written for people who want to believe that we will be rewarded for our suffering in this world, by going on to a better place. Believe it if you will, I am going to enjoy this life instead.

As I read Mitch Albom's books, I have come to notice that he seems eager to describe the difference between life in reality and in heaven. And The Five People You Meet in Heaven is no exception; Mitch seemed to show both Eddie's birthdays he had spent and his life after death caused by the accident in his amusement park. At first, Eddie was confused to see the 5 people in heaven, wondering why he was there. Then they let him know what he didn't realize before he died. The 5 people seemed to yearn for happier times than when they had lived. Unfortunately, I'm not really sure how this story ended right now, but I believe Eddie would feel happier eventually in heaven than before his death.

I liked this book because it makes you think about everyday things in a whole different way - that 90% of how we influence others circling in life around us is what we don't see. It is so easy to get absorbed in what we are doing and to focus on what we need to do and where we need to be that it is possible to miss so much and the near-misses, the passing by of people who otherwise seem removed but for whom we have significance. The book highlights how we often don't even realise that we move through the world and affect people in ways for which we may be completely unaware because they may have no impact on us, but there was hidden meaning and significance in the interactions, however brief.

The book is beautifully written and lovely to read. It is thought provoking and touching. It is one of those rare books that held my attention from the moment I started reading it and I finished it in one day because of being so captivated by it.

If I have one complaint, it is that I did not like the idea of there being only five people you meet you in heaven. I would think that in a lifetime, particulary of someone in their 80's, there would be a lot more people. But then, perhaps the five is meant as a kind of allegory and having too many people would make the book too long and it would lose its powerful effect.