Book Review: ‘The Immortalists’ Is An Early Candidate For Book Of The Year And Asks One Question Would You Want To Know The Day You Will Die?

If you could know the day you are going to die would you want to know? That is the question you need to ask yourself before reading The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin, in stores Tuesday, January 9th from Putnam.

Four your kids in 1969,that live in New York on the Lower East Side, learn about a woman (a traveling psychic) who can tell you the date of your death (not how you will die just when). They seek her out and one by one they go in and see her. They each keep the dates to themselves as to when. It has a profound effect on them from that day forward. It changes their lives and they each make decisions based on knowing the dates.

The story tells how each of the four kids Simon (the youngest), Klars (second youngest), then Daniel and Varya each lived their lives from that day forward and leading up to the dates they were told. Was this psychic telling the truth and was she full of crap?

I am not going into each of their stories to avoid any type of spoilers. It’s a fascinating look though at how knowing something like when you might die can influence the choices of your life. I couldn’t put this book down, it’s what I like to call a page-turner. It’s only January and is already on my potential 2018 best books of the year list.

* In the press notes it says that the book has already been optioned for a potential US TV series.