“The Immortalists” by Chloe Benjamin, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $26 hardcover, January 2018
Chloe Benjamin is a 29-year-old award-winning author who lives in Madison, Wisconsin. She grew up in San Francisco; her mother was the daughter of an Episcopalian minister; her dad was Jewish; her stepmother is Jewish.
Her father’s family history includes grandparents who came through Ellis Island, fleeing Europe and pogroms. She became fascinated by the ties that bind Jews to other Jews.
When I first read about it, there was something intriguing about the theme.
The premise for this family saga is: what if you knew exactly when you were going to die?
The time is 1969, a Lower East Side of New York Jewish family. The four children of the Jewish Gold family pool their resources to visit a gypsy fortune teller whom they are told can say when you will die.
At the time Simon is 7, Klara is 9, Daniel is 11 and Varya is 13.
The four sections of the novel relate the siblings’ lives, each in order of their predicted death. Benjamin says in a publisher’s interview, “When the siblings receive their supposed dates of death, they make decisions based on that knowledge — decisions they might not have made if they’d never visited the fortune teller.”
The Gold siblings each have different orientations toward Judaism, just as they have different orientations toward their prophecies.
Simon is 16 when he leaves home, moves to San Francisco to be part of the LGBTQ movement, and becomes a ballet dancer.
Klara becomes a magician in San Francisco then moves with her husband and child to Las Vegas.
Daniel becomes a chief medical officer at a military entrance processing station.
Varya becomes a biologist researching anti-aging with monkeys.
Benjamin says she hopes the book “offers solace and companionship in navigating life’s uncertainties, as well as the enduring pull of family. To me, the book is not about dying; it’s about living, embracing as fully and fearlessly as possible what time we’re given.”
When the book was published, reviewers called it “a captivating family saga” (The New York Times Book Review), a really compelling plotline (Wall Street Journal), a “dazzling family love story” and “a literary thriller.”
For this reviewer, it was both powerful and captivating, mesmerizing and disturbing.
Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, lecturer, book reviewer, food writer and author.
