The Immortalists

t's 1969 and the four Gold children, oldest 13 hear of a mystical lady on the Lower East Side of NY who can foretells the day one will die. “The Immortalists” is the story of these four siblings, Simon, Varya, Daniel and Klara as they grow up and come to terms with what their “day” is. Does the knowledge of when one going to die impact the choices they make that lead to that outcome? Everyone wrestles with mortality, but what does knowing the exact day of your death due to your psychological outlook, the life choices you make?

The novel is structured around each character in the order of the year they die, earliest to latest. I loved the premise of Chloe Benjamin's novel and was fully immersed through the first half of the book, following the lives of Simon and Klara. They were the most fully realized and developed of the characters and the existential question raised by Benjamin's book, did knowing the date of their death lead to a set of decisions that resulted in fate being realized or was it just fate. I felt the momentum and connection with the characters started to flag midway through Daniel's story. While there were moments of brilliance, particularly the Thanksgiving visit from Varya's widower and daughter, there were some plot twists that were forced and left the final part of that “chapter” trite and predictable. By the end of the novel, I was a bit disappointed, for what started out with so much promise ended with a little bit of a whimper. In my mind, “The Immortalists” may have been stronger structurally if it centered on no more than three siblings instead of the four.

I'm somewhat torn between giving the book three or four stars, but lean toward four given the strength of the first half to two thirds of a tale well told about one of those timeless questions — What if you knew exactly when you were going to die?