Albom, Mitch

DM) When it comes to death, it sometimes makes people feel uncomfortable.

MA) I don't look at it that way. I think Tuesdays with Morrie was a book about a man who was dying, but was really a book about how to live. This book, "The Five People you Meet in Heaven", has heaven in the title but is really about life on earth. I think that in my books, death is used as a perspective to say, "If you really want to understand what matters in life, then you can put it against the biggest picture that you can.". They're not "death" books or ghoulish by any means.

DM) I never looked at them as ghoulish, but I admit that it's not often I feel comfortable talking about death.

MA) I think I was the same way as you about seven or eight ago, but through weird circumstances I was forced to deal with death. My old professor Morrie, I watched him die, and I learned that there are wonderful things that can come out of the dying experience, some great lessons for how to live your life. And that expanded into the idea of heaven casting some reflection on how to live on earth. I've used them as springboards to write about life, in both cases. Both cases are about how to live life here as opposed to anything else.

DM) Isn't it a challenge to write about such an emotional subject?

MA) No, because I guess Morrie made it less traumatic. He was able to prepare me for it and walk me up to it with him, as he got closer to it. He would tell me what he was learning and feeling, and he accepted it as part of life and therefore, walking alongside him I had to accept it. He definitely de-traumatized me about it. He really had one of the worst ways to die and yet he was able to find meaning and significance in that, even as he was dying of this terrible disease. I figured if he was 78 years old and dying and I was 37 years old and healthy, he shouldn't be happier than I was, but he was. He was more content with his life and I tried finding out what he knew that I didn't. And that took some of the trauma off of the issue of death.

DM) Could you have written your most recent book without the experience of the first?

MA) No, I don't think I would have written, "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" without having written "Tuesdays with Morrie."

DM) But they're not continuations of one book to the other, but it seems that common themes follow through.

MA) I think a lot of "Five People You Meet in Heaven" was formed over the past six years in talking with people about "Tuesdays with Morrie." I would go everywhere from bookstores, to hospitals, to universities, and I've heard a lot of sad stories from people; a lot of stories from people who have lost loved ones, who are grieving and where they think their loved ones are. All of those stories were floating around in my head, particularly the idea of loss and what happens when people are gone. I wouldn't have had those experiences with those readers, if not for "Tuesdays with Morrie." I would probably have heard about people talking about sports and so if your world is people talking about sports, you'll probably write about sports. But my world has been talking about issues about life and death, meaningful lives and missing people. So it seems natural that I'd gravitate towards that.

DM) It seems that you've learned a lot from just the discussion with readers.

MA) Yes I have, you learn something from everybody that you meet. I've met hundreds and thousands of people, a lot of whom have taken their time to tell me very personal stories. Then you realize that somebody can be very cheery on the outside and then they show another side. You get to know somebody that way and you get to hear different angles on their lives. I've learned quite a bit from discussing Tuesdays with my readers and that in turn helped form the current book.