《你在天堂里遇见的五个人》迄今已在全球热销400万册，被译成多国文字，占据美国畅销书排行榜前五位超过40周。《你在天堂里遇见的五个人》是都市人的心灵良药，让读者换一种全新的视角思索人生的价值。
 
他叫爱迪，八十三岁生日那天，为了拯救身处险境的女孩而殒命游乐场。醒来时，爱迪已身处天堂，这才发现：那里并不是牧歌萦绕的伊甸园，而是地球上生活片断的交叠重现。五个被爱迪或铭记或忽略或遗忘的人，轮流登场，引领他寻找逝去的时光，追问人生的谜底。本文描述了爱迪遇见的第一个人——陌生的蓝皮人，他让爱迪懂得：天地间仿佛有一条巨大的锁链串联着每个生命，每一个人都会影响到另一个人，世界上各式各样的故事，说到底都是同一个。
 
    “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.
    “让我先来告诉你我的真实姓名吧，”蓝皮人说道。“我洗礼时被命名为约瑟夫·克韦奇克，是波兰一个小村庄里一个裁缝的儿子。我们一家在1894年来到美国。我当时还是一个小孩子。我的母亲抱着我，把我举到船舷栏杆外面，让我在新世界的微风里晃荡，这情景成为了我最初的童年记忆。
    “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.”
    “像大部分移民一样，我们没有钱。我们睡在我叔叔的厨房里的一张床垫上。我的父亲不得不在一家工厂里缝大衣纽扣，赚血汗钱。当我十岁的时候，父亲让我辍学，开始跟他一起干活儿。”
    Eddie watched the Blue Man’s 6)pitted face, his thin lips, his 7)sagging chest. Why is he telling me this? Eddie thought.
    爱迪望着蓝皮人的麻子脸，薄嘴唇和松松垮垮的胸脯，心想：他告诉我这些干什么？
     “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.
    “我天生胆小怯弱。有一次，我绊了一跤，碰落一大袋纽扣，扣子撒了一地。工头大骂我没用，一个没用的孩子，必须被解雇。我现在还能清晰地记得那一刻的情形，我父亲像街上的乞丐一样苦苦哀求，工头用手背抹着鼻涕，嘴角挂着一丝冷笑。我感到心中一阵绞痛。然后，我觉得腿上湿漉漉的。我低头看去。工头指着我尿湿的裤子，大笑起来，其他工人也跟着哄笑起来。
 “After that, my father refused to speak to me. He felt I had shamed him, and I suppose, in his world, I had. But fathers can ruin their sons, and I was, in a fashion, ruined after that. I was a nervous child, and when I grew, I was a nervous young man. Worst of all, at night, I still wet the bed. In the mornings I would sneak the soiled sheets to the washbasin and soak them. One morning, I looked up to see my father. He saw the dirty sheets, then 10)glared at me with eyes that I will never forget, as if he wished he could snap the cord of life between us.”
    “打那以后，我父亲拒绝跟我说话。他觉得我给他带来了耻辱，在他的世界里，我想，我是给他带来了耻辱。但是，做父亲的，是可以毁掉自己的儿子的。从某种意义上讲，打那以后，我被毁了。我从小胆小怯弱，长大了，仍是一个胆怯的年轻人。最糟糕的是，我晚上还尿床。早晨起来，我偷偷地把尿湿的被单放到脸盆里浸上。一天早晨，我抬起头来，看到了我的父亲。他望了一眼脏被单，然后，怒视着我，他那眼神，我永远无法忘记，他好像恨不得与我断绝血缘关系，从此一刀两断。”
    The Blue Man paused. His skin, which seemed to be soaked in blue 11)fluid, folded in small 12)fatty layers around his belt. Eddie couldn’t help staring.
    蓝皮人沉默了一下。他的皮肤好像在蓝色液体里浸过，一小层一小层的肥肉耷拉在皮带上。爱迪忍不住盯着他看。
    “I was not always a freak, Edward,” he said. “But back then, medicine was rather primitive. I went to a chemist, seeking something for my nerves. He gave me a bottle of 13)silver nitrate and told me to mix it with water and take it every night. Silver nitrate. It was later considered poison. But it was all I had, and when it failed to work, I could only assume I was not 14)ingesting enough. So I took more. I swallowed two gulps and sometimes three, with no water.
    “我过去并非一直是这副怪模样，爱德华，”他说道。“但是，那时候，医药相当落后。我去见一位药剂师，想找些药控制我的神经紧张。他给了我一瓶硝酸银，告诉我用水调开，每天晚上服用。硝酸银，后来人们认定那是毒药。但是，当时我别无选择，所以当它没有效果的时候，我只能认为我喝得不够。于是，我加大剂量，喝两大口，有时甚至三大口，还不搀水。
    “Soon, people were looking at me strangely. My skin was turning the color of ash. ”
     “不久，人们开始用异样的眼光看我。我的皮肤变成了灰色。”
    “I was ashamed and 15)agitated. I swallowed even more silver nitrate, until my skin went from gray to blue, a side effect of the poison.”
    “我感到羞耻，焦虑不安。我吞下更多的硝酸银，直到我的皮肤从灰色变成了蓝色，这是那毒药的副作用。”

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