《你在天堂里遇見的五個人》迄今已在全球熱銷400萬冊，被譯成多國文字，占據美國暢銷書排行榜前五位超過40周。《你在天堂里遇見的五個人》是都市人的心靈良藥，讓讀者換一種全新的視角思索人生的價值。

他叫愛迪，八十三歲生日那天，為了拯救身處險境的女孩而殞命游樂場。醒來時，愛迪已身處天堂，這才發現：那里并不是牧歌縈繞的伊甸園，而是地球上生活片斷的交疊重現。五個被愛迪或銘記或忽略或遺忘的人，輪流登場，引領他尋找逝去的時光，追問人生的謎底。本文描述了愛迪遇見的第一個人——陌生的藍皮人，他讓愛迪懂得：天地間仿佛有一條巨大的鎖鏈串聯著每個生命，每一個人都會影響到另一個人，世界上各式各樣的故事，說到底都是同一個。

“Let me begin with my real name,” the Blue Man said. “I was 1)christened Joseph Corvelzchik, the son of a 2)tailor in a small 3)Polish village. We came to America in 1894. I was only a boy. My mother held me over the 4)railing of the ship and this became my earliest childhood memory, my mother swinging me in the breezes of a new world.

“讓我先來告訴你我的真實姓名吧，”藍皮人說道。“我洗禮時被命名為約瑟夫·克韋奇克，是波蘭一個小村莊里一個裁縫的兒子。我們一家在1894年來到美國。我當時還是一個小孩子。我的母親抱著我，把我舉到船舷欄桿外面，讓我在新世界的微風里晃蕩，這情景成為了我最初的童年記憶。

“Like most immigrants, we had no money. We slept on a mattress in my uncle’s kitchen. My father was forced to take a job in a 5)sweatshop, sewing buttons on coats. When I was ten, he took me from school and I joined him.”

“像大部分移民一樣，我們沒有錢。我們睡在我叔叔的廚房里的一張床墊上。我的父親不得不在一家工廠里縫大衣紐扣，賺血汗錢。當我十歲的時候，父親讓我輟學，開始跟他一起干活兒。”

Eddie watched the Blue Man’s 6)pitted face, his thin lips, his 7)sagging chest. Why is he telling me this? Eddie thought.

愛迪望著藍皮人的麻子臉，薄嘴唇和松松垮垮的胸脯，心想：他告訴我這些干什么?

“I was a nervous child by nature. Once, I stumbled and dropped a sack of buttons, which spilled over the floor. The 8)foreman screamed that I was worthless, a worthless child, that I must go. I can still see that moment, my father pleading with him like a street beggar, the foreman 9)sneering, wiping his nose with the back of his hand. I felt my stomach twist in pain. Then I felt something wet on my leg. I looked down. The foreman pointed at my soiled pants and laughed, and the other workers laughed, too.

“我天生膽小怯弱。有一次，我絆了一跤，碰落一大袋紐扣，扣子撒了一地。工頭大罵我沒用，一個沒用的孩子，必須被解雇。我現在還能清晰地記得那一刻的情形，我父親像街上的乞丐一樣苦苦哀求，工頭用手背抹著鼻涕，嘴角掛著一絲冷笑。我感到心中一陣絞痛。然后，我覺得腿上濕漉漉的。我低頭看去。工頭指著我尿濕的褲子，大笑起來，其他工人也跟著哄笑起來。