The Immortalists

An Amazon Best Book of January 2018:The Immortalists doesn’t seem like a second novel: it has all the unexpected brilliance of a debut hit, combined with the assured style and long-sighted wisdom you’d expect from an older, more experienced writer. But author Chloe Benjamin is – astonishingly -- only 28 years old, and her ambitious and deeply moving novel sets a high standard for realistic fiction in 2018 – and it’s only January. Benjamin tells the story of four teenage siblings who, on a lark, ask a fortuneteller to reveal the dates of their deaths. Whether that fortuneteller is a con artist or is genuinely gifted with second sight doesn’t interest Benjamin so much as how one piece of possibly spurious information conspires with character and circumstance to warp the siblings’ choices as they grow into adulthood. Along the way, Benjamin poses intriguing questions about the value of longevity and whether we are victims, or perpetrators, of our own fates. Though Benjamin is wary of magical thinking, her omniscient writing casts a masterful spell that will leave you eager to see what her third novel will bring. --Sarah Harrison Smith, Amazon Book Review