The Five People You Meet in Heaven
by Mitch Albom
★ Top 25 book of 2003 · #16 on Best Books of 2003
A 2003 novel by Mitch Albom about Eddie, a ride mechanic killed in an amusement park accident. In heaven he meets five people who had a significant impact on his life.
Best for: Readers who like gentle, reflective stories about meaning and loss.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven is #16 on BookWard's Best Books of 2003, out of 52 2003 books that cleared our data bar.
What The Five People You Meet in Heaven is about
Eddie is an old amusement park ride mechanic, and he dies on his 83rd birthday when a ride breaks down, trying desperately to save a little girl named Annie. What follows is his journey through Heaven, where he passes through five levels and meets someone at each one who changed his life, or whose life he changed. His first lesson, from the Blue Man, is that nothing happens at random and every life is connected to others.
Albom draws on Eddie's wartime past as a prisoner of war and on ordinary years that seemed to add up to little. The tone is warm, sentimental and contemplative. It will appeal to readers looking for a gentle story about forgiveness, meaning and the quiet ways lives touch one another.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven on the Best Books of 2003
The Five People You Meet in Heaven came out in 2003. Of the 52 books first published in 2003 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #16 on our Best Books of 2003 list.
Why it made the list: 396 readers have shelved it on Open Library; 26 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2003 list
- Fire and Ice Erin Hunter, #14
- Eleven Minutes Paulo Coelho, #15
- Women Who Think Too Much Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, #17
- Quattro Topi Nella Giungla Nera Elisabetta Dami, #18
See all Best Books of 2003 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2002 Best Books of 2004.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 339 want to read it, 26 are reading it now and 31 have read it, according to Open Library.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 71 | 55% |
| Reader love | 37 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 73 | 20% |
Questions about The Five People You Meet in Heaven
When was The Five People You Meet in Heaven published?
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom was first published in 2003.
Was The Five People You Meet in Heaven one of the best books of 2003?
The Five People You Meet in Heaven is #16 on BookWard's Best Books of 2003, out of 52 2003 books that cleared our data bar. 396 readers have shelved it on Open Library; 26 are reading it right now.
Why is The Five People You Meet in Heaven on the Best Books of 2003 list?
396 readers have shelved it on Open Library; 26 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 2003
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix J. K. Rowling, #1
- Into the Wild Erin Hunter, #2
- The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini, #3
- Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Mo Willems, #4
- A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson, #5
- The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown, #6
See the full Best Books of 2003, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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