A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Washington Post • NPR • Entertainment Weekly • Real Simple • Marie Claire • New York Public Library • LibraryReads • The Skimm • Lit Hub • Lit Reactor AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER“A captivating family saga.”—The New York Times Book Review“This literary family saga is perfect for fans of Celeste Ng and Donna Tartt.”—People Magazine (Book of the Week)If you knew the … captivating family saga.”—The New York Times Book Review
“This literary family saga is perfect for fans of Celeste Ng and Donna Tartt.”—People Magazine (Book of the Week)
If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life?
It’s 1969 in New York City’s Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children—four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness—sneak out to hear their fortunes.
The prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden-boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in ’80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son Daniel seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality.
A sweeping novel of remarkable ambition and depth, The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next. It is a deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds.
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It’s very rare that I end up loving a book that I don’t enjoy for the first 50 pages — though it took me awhile to get into it, by the end of The Immortalists I felt deeply for each of the 4 siblings. Each of them was incredibly different from the other. One was a dancer in San Francisco, another was an aspiring magician who believed in her own magic tricks, the other a military doctor, and the last an OCD researcher. But what they all had in common was that they were haunted by a childhood visit to a fortune teller who gave them the date that they would die.
Do they have free will or is their fate predetermined? This is a book about death that is actually just about life.
This was an incredible ride of a family drama… I don’t know quite what I expected, but it wasn’t what I got – but not in a bad way. The story starts out with four siblings headed to a “fortune teller” in New York City – a woman rumored to be able to tell anyone who visits her the exact date of their death. That fateful trip sets their lives on individual courses that are intense, insane, and incredible – with the never-answered question being whether the prophesy drove their lives or their lives drove the prophecy…
After the opening chapter, the book divides into timeline narratives chronicling each sibling’s life and experiences as they live under the knowledge of their prophesied death date. The stories can be rough – particularly the first two, for the youngest siblings. This is raw, gritty life – and death. The four sections are all well written, and the characters’ voices are distinct and strong (even when the characters themselves are not), exploring the particular personality quirks and foibles that make each sibling unique and eminently human.
Some of the stories resonated more strongly with me than others; this is not a particularly astute observation, I suppose, since the life that each story relates is so different, but it surprised me nevertheless to find myself skimming chunks of some stories and poring over each line in others. Benjamin’s writing is lovely and poignant and delicately difficult to bear at times; she has a marvelous talent for highlighting human weakness in a way that resonates like a raw nerve. It’s rough going at times, but you can’t help but learn something about yourself in the process – kind of like living life…
I don’t know that I could re-read this one; knowing the heartbreak facing this family (particularly their poor mother, eek…) I don’t think I could keep turning pages again – but the initial read was a devastating trip I am extremely glad I took.
My review copy was provided by NetGalley.
This book was really well written. I can say it was beautifully tragic and also inspiring. (I also found it extremely depressing). Yes, it was inspiring and many lessons are learned. This book is all of those emotions, and because I felt it so deeply…it haunts me. It reminds you to live life to your fullest!
a gorgeously written family saga with a touch of magic
My current “book-of-the-year” favorite by an astonishingly skilled storyteller.
An unusual look at a group of siblings and their family relationships, what draws people toward the adventure they choose or is chosen for them, and why… And leaves you asking who exactly ARE the immortalists.
This is a very unique book and I really enjoyed it. I love all of the characters and the way it is written.
Four children learn the dates of their deaths. The book then takes you through each of their lives. Captivating and enjoyable! Stirs lots of different emotions and keeps you entertained.
A beautiful well-written story on the love siblings has for each other. No matter how far life took them or the fates they received they always found their way back to each other. Highly recommend this story.
Chloe Benjamin has pulled off a hat trick. She tells us early on what is going to happen to these four siblings, yet we can’t tear our eyes away from the page, perhaps hoping against hope that fate will not win and free will triumph. I heard her speak about this book two years ago and read it shortly after but am just now taking the time to post a review. It has lingered in my mind all this time, its blend of urgency and sensitivity resonating with me. Her prose is gorgeous, the plot fascinating, but it’s the four characters who will win your heart and stay with you. Highly recommended
After finishing this book, I wanted to just keep it and the characters with me for a while. I grew attached to all of them. Each sibling is imperfect in many ways but I held them so dear. It was odd knowing their fates and reading along as each sibling’s choices and actions brought them to fruition. I wanted so badly to yell through the pages and stop them!
I’m conflicted about this book… I almost want to give it three and a half stars, but I’d hate for anyone to skip this book because of my review. It is a compelling story. Probably the most engrossing story I’ve read this year, if you think in terms of I started it and couldn’t really put it down until I finished. The characters were believable and their relationships authentic and relatable. The premise is interesting and the author does a good job of not spoon-feeding the moral, the reader is left to decide something on their own, which I like.
There was some contrived drama and throughout a lot of the story, I kept having the feeling of reading my mom’s old Danielle Steel books – particularly the ones that follow a whole family through the course of their lives.
Overall, it was enjoyable, well-written, and interesting. If you enjoy a good family drama, this is for you.
A fortune teller predicts the date of four siblings death, and the information sets in motion the direction of their lives. Fascinating, heartbreaking and so real I wanted to yell at the characters to change their ways. An interwoven family history and reflection on how different siblings can be, and yet share a bond of family history,,,and blood. Beautifully structured and heart-stopping in places. If you could know when you would die, would you want to? And how would it affect your life.
I got three-quarters of the way through this book and I have to admit, I didn’t finish it. The basic premise was SO compelling and friends who’d read it all had rave reviews — I just felt like it didn’t live up to the hype. I enjoyed the first two sections immensely, especially Klara’s. I think the pacing felt off to me — you go from the flash and angst of 1980s San Francisco to the mysterious world of Las Vegas magic and wind up in the more mundane, domestic world of Daniel and Varya. I’d have preferred to begin with Daniel and Varya and work backwards to Simon’s story, but that’s just me.
I won an ARC from Read It Forward.
This was a lovely read! I was pulled in from the first chapter where the four Gold children visit a magician and find out the date they’ll die. The four parts of the book then follow each child while they grow and explore what it means to really live. It also does a beautiful job debating fate verses free will. The interplay between the magician’s prophecies and the choices they each make made for some great stories.
I would recommend this to anyone who:
– is looking for a mystical family drama
– wants to take a break from another genre
I will definitely be checking out other works by Chloe Benjamin!
Favorite Quotes:
There is no air-conditioning in the apartment, and this year— the summer of 1969— it seems something is happening to everyone but them. People are getting wasted at Woodstock and singing “Pinball Wizard” and watching Midnight Cowboy, which none of the Gold children are allowed to see.
Gertie has always believed in superstition more than any God. She spits three times when a funeral goes by, throws salt if the shaker falls over, and never passed a cemetery while pregnant, which required the family to endure constant rerouting between 1956 and 1962. Each Friday, she observes the Sabbath with effortful patience, as if the Sabbath is a guest she can’t wait to get rid of.
What if the woman on Hester Street is right, and the next few years are his last? The mere thought turns his life a different color; it makes everything feel urgent, glittering, precious.
He’s angry with the disease. He rages at the disease. For so long, he hated the woman, too. How, he wondered, could she give such a terrible fortune to a child? But now he thinks of her differently, like a second mother or a god, she who showed him the door and said: Go.
I know they’re your family… But if they weren’t, you wouldn’t like them, either.
They began together: before any of them were people, they were eggs, four out of their mother’s millions. Astonishing, that they could diverge so dramatically in their temperaments, their fatal flaws— like strangers caught for seconds in the same elevator.
My Review:
The Immortalists was one of those prickly heartbreaking books that tend to keep me on edge and in conflict while reading. It was also stunningly observant, painfully insightful, carefully paced, and hard to leave alone. The premise, plot, and subplots of this epic tale were ingeniously creative, multifaceted, complex, and inexplicably intriguing. Each of the main and many of the secondary characters were deeply flawed, in possession of questionable mental health, fractured, prone to self-loathing yet selfish, full of secrets, and living in their heads. They were uniquely fascinating and exquisitely baffling and peculiar, while also periodically frustratingly inconsistent and irrational, or disappointingly irresponsible. In other words – they were real. The writing was top-shelf, although there were a few times where the story felt bogged down by an influx of medical and research minutia and/or complicated details that appeared unnecessary, although I also found myself absorbing many interesting facts about nature and magic tricks. This will undoubtedly be one of those books that will forever remain in my memory banks and sense that I will be living with these unique characters rattling around in my headspace for quite some time, as I am rather reluctant to let them go.
Another descriptor: thought provoking. I bet I keep thinking of this book for a while.
There’s a lot to unpack with this book, and it makes me sad that so much time was spent accepting the inevitable instead of living. Everyone will die sometime, but it’s what we do with each day that’s important. I’m not sure that I liked the story, but I liked the premise and the eventuality of it. Each character was a bit sad and I wanted more for them.
Terrific read. I really enjoyed this story of siblings who lived their lives according to a prophecy from childhood. Well written, engrossing and well worth your time. Enjoy.
“The Immortalists” asks to what degree fate intrudes into one’s life: do certain predictions have any intrinsic value or do they influence each character to live their lives in particular ways? Each of Gertie and Saul’s four offspring are haunted throughout their lives by a gypsy’s prophecies of the dates of their deaths. At the root of their psychology is their parents’ ordeals under Nazism which seems to have imparted a sense of fatalism to Simon, Klara, Daniel and Varya.
The characters are well drawn and original, and their particular circumstances are pretty well researched. Benjamin details how each character invents his or her life in original ways, but some of the situations seem a bit fantastic (Klara’s magic acts, Simon’s experiences in San Francisco, Daniel’s encounter with Bruna).
Though parts of the book (Klara’s work) seem overloaded with too much mundane detail and other parts seem far-fetched, overall it’s an interesting and entertaining read.
If you were told the day of your death, how would you live your life? Five versions of this. Interesting read, but forgettable.
The story line is that the four Gold children make a clandestine visit to a gypsy fortune teller who can predict when a person will die. She gives each of them a date and warns them to keep the information secret—which they do. The question in my mind was whether their resulting lives and career choices would be impacted by the knowledge of how short or long each of their lives would be. Benjamin doesn’t really address that issue. Instead, she simply describes each of their lives from the shortest to the longest and leaves the reader to arrive at their own conclusions. The characters are well described and interesting, but the plot starts to feel a bit formulaic about halfway through. Thereafter, the narrative picks up with some interesting twists in the lives of the two older children, notably Varya, who works in a Rhesus monkey research center.