What if you learned as a child/teen the exact date of your death? How would that impact the choices in your life? If you knew the date of someone else’s death, would that affect your interaction with them?
Four siblings..ages 7, 9, 11 and 13…each learn the date of their death from a fortune teller. Part of the story is whether or not they shared the information with each other, so I won’t give that away. It’s a disturbing premise and explores how hearing this might affect our choices and our relationship with others. The author tells the story from each sibling’s perspective, in chronological order. It works because it feels realistic. You don’t always know – and we frequently assume we know – someone else’s reason for their actions (or inactions). As you read, the picture of the family’s story becomes fuller and more complete.
Each sibling tries in their own way to manage the knowledge that someone predicted the date of their death. Do you believe it and live with gusto to make the best of the time you have? Do you dismiss it, bury it and try to prove the prophecy wrong? Do you share this knowledge – will people think you are crazy?
I really enjoyed The Immortalists and, for the most part, each character’s reaction is realistic. One character’s death seems like a stretch to me – I think the author forced the story a bit. This would be a great book discussion – I would be interested in talking about which character used the information to live their life to the fullest. I have my opinion.
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