Book Review: The Five People You Meet In Heaven

Its not often that I find a book that makes me cry from start to finish. But that is exactly what I found when I opened the pages of ‘The Five People You Meet In heaven’. Did I know it was a book about death? Yes. But did I know it was a book about life? No. no, I did not. Get your tissues ready chaps, this book will sadden you, leave a bitter taste in your mouth, but ultimately, uplift your soul. It is a book about endings, there are a few out there that do this. But not many tell you why it has to end, why then ending was inevitable. And why every event in your life lead to that moment. To say that ‘it was all done by design’ is wrong. Fate? Also, wrong. But, it seems in this book that something aligned and where you find yourself is where you are meant to be. Now that can seem harsh to many people. But this book goes deeper, looks harder at life’s circumstances, at the spirituality of life.

So what happens? Our protagonist: Eddie, is a maintenance worker at Ruby Pier. Its his 83rd birthday, he’s a war veteran who should’ve retired a long time ago. He looks after the rides and makes sure they’re safe. One day a ride fails and he runs to save the life of a small child. The last thing he knows is the small hand in his. 

What happens next is a journey through the life that Eddie had lived through the five people who had changed his life. Some, like his wife Marguerite, he knew. Others he didn’t but had irrevocably changed the path he was on. He had to understand why some people had died, why some had lived, the reasons. However coarse and terrible and what we understand as heaven. 

Eddie comes to realise, that the life he had lived wasn’t a waste. Sure, he had dreams, he didn’t want to be a maintenance worker, he didn’t want to be a soldier, he wanted to be more for his wife, live a good life and not think about the terrible things he’d done. He came to realise that even the smallest actions can change someone else’s life. Like running into the road to catch a ball, not realising that this would cause a car to swerve and crash. Ultimately, Eddie needed to learn to forgive. He had to forgive his father for the love that was denied him and forgive him for dying. But, importantly, the greatest lesson he had to take from the five people he met in heaven, was to forgive himself. This came with the last person he met in heaven, the child he accidentally killed during the war. If the child could forgive him for burning her home, for being the one who lifted him to heaven. Then Eddie can learn to forgive himself, and only then was he able to move on.