I highly recommend this book! I’d never heard of it before, possibly because it’s not the sort of book I would normally read. When I was browsing books on amazon.com, though, it came up under the “people who ordered this book also ordered …” option (and now I can’t remember what the other book I was looking at was!). I read the summary and it sounded very interesting, so went ahead and ordered it (what can I say, I was splurging after having gotten my income tax refund).
I’ve only just started reading it, and am so amazed by it. Don’t know exactly what category it would fall under; I’ve read it described as a parable; it could also be described as fantasy, but essentially it’s about an elderly man who dies trying to save a child on an amusement park ride. The man goes to heaven where he meets five people, one at a time, each of whom he has had some effect on their lives (and they on his, in turn). And that’s the core principle of the book, I think–that everyone in some way or another affect others, like the ripples from a pebble dropped into water. It’s actually a very uplifting story (so far); it’s causing me to consider who might the five people be that I would meet … who would the five be that were waiting for my Mom…
If you haven’t heard of the book, it’s by Mitch Albom, who also authored “Tuesdays with Morrie.” I haven’t read that book yet, but it’s definitely on my list now.