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Review "It reminds you of how everything is somehow connected." -- Diane C. "Let me finish wiping my tears. What a beautiful journey. Such a touching, moving, thought-provoking story." -- Alicia Fleischer Product Description Eddie is a wounded war veteran, an old man who has lived, in his mind, an uninspired life. His job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him, as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakes in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a destination. It's a place where your life is explained to you by five people, some of whom you knew, others who may have been strangers. One by one, from childhood to soldier to old age, Eddie's five people revisit their connections to him on earth, illuminating the mysteries of his "meaningless" life, and revealing the haunting secret behind the eternal question: "Why was I here?" About the Author Mitch Albom is an author, playwright, and screenwriter who has written seven books, including the international bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie, the bestselling memoir of all time. His first novel, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, was an instant number one New York Times bestseller that has since sold more than six million copies worldwide. Both books were made into acclaimed TV films. Mitch also works as a columnist and a broadcaster, and serves on numerous charitable boards. He lives with his wife, Janine, in Michigan. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. The Five People You Meet in Heaven By Mitch Albom Hyperion BooksCopyright © 2006 Mitch Albom All right reserved. ISBN: 9781401308582 Chapter One The End This is a story about a man named Eddie and it begins at the end,with Eddie dying in the sun. It might seem strange to start a storywith an ending. But all endings are also beginnings. We just don'tknow it at the time. The last hour of Eddie's life was spent, like most of the others, atRuby Pier, an amusement park by a great gray ocean. The park had theusual attractions, a boardwalk, a Ferris wheel, roller coasters,bumper cars, a taffy stand, and an arcade where you could shootstreams of water into a clown's mouth. It also had a big new ridecalled Freddy's Free Fall, and this would be where Eddie would bekilled, in an accident that would make newspapers around the state. At the time of his death, Eddie was a squat, white-haired old man,with a short neck, a barrel chest, thick forearms, and a faded armytattoo on his right shoulder. His legs were thin and veined now, andhis left knee, wounded in the war, was ruined by arthritis. He useda cane to get around. His face was broad and craggy from the sun,with salty whiskers and a lower jaw that protruded slightly, makinghim look prouder than he felt. He kept a cigarette behind his leftear and a ring of keys hooked to his belt. He wore rubber-soledshoes. He wore an old linen cap. His pale brown uniform suggested aworkingman, and a workingman he was. Eddie's job was "maintaining" the rides, which really meant keepingthem safe. Every afternoon, he walked the park, checking on eachattraction, from the Tilt-A-Whirl to the Pipeline Plunge. He lookedfor broken boards, loose bolts, worn-out steel. Sometimes he wouldstop, his eyes glazing over, and people walking past thoughtsomething was wrong. But he was listening, that's all. After allthese years he could hear trouble, he said, in the spits andstutters and thrumming of the equipment. With 50 minutes left on earth, Eddie took his last walk along RubyPier. He passed an elderly couple. "Folks," he mumbled, touching his cap. They nodded politely. Customers knew Eddie. At least the regularones did. They saw him summer after summer, one of those faces youassociate with a place. His work shirt had a patch on the chest thatread Eddie above the word Maintenance, and sometimes they would say,"Hiya, Eddie Maintenance," although he never thought that was funny. Today, it so happened, was Eddi