The others keep their predicted end-dates to themselves, at least at this moment in the novel. Varya, informed she will live to age 88, dismisses the prediction as trivial, and is the only one to share what she’s learned. The old woman sees each of the kids privately, and each reacts differently to what she tells them.

Daniel organizes the children’s visit to the supposed oracle, having overheard two other boys talking about the woman’s ability to tell her visitants the day and year when their deaths will come. The kids are Varya (13), Daniel (11), Klara (9), and Simon (7). One summer day in 1969, the four siblings of the Gold family, offspring of second-generation Jewish immigrants, set out to consult a psychic living not far from their Lower East Side apartment.

Benjamin treats it with profound, heart-tugging respect, and gives us a novel crafted with a resonant sensitivity to the lifelong complexities of family relationships.Īt the heart of this marvelous novel are four interlocking life histories that unfurl from a single childhood event shared by the central characters.

This narrative nugget could break in any number of directions. Chloe Benjamin’s second novel unwinds from a meme that could animate a gory horror flick or a midnight college gab session: What if you knew in advance the exact day you would die?

The immortalists novel