The Immortalists

Chloe Benjamin

In this sprawling novel of ideas, themes of determinism versus free will and family duty versus personal fulfillment prompt the reader to consider how best we should live. Through the lives of four siblings given the curse - or blessing - of knowing their fate, the author offers a testament to the escapist power of fantasy and magic when the final certainty in life is death.

Extract

'She turns onto her back and floats. If the woman is right, if she could see Simon’s death in 1969, then there’s magic in the world: some strange, shimmering knowledge in the very heart of the unknowable. And if there’s magic in the world, there’s magic beyond it, which means that it doesn’t matter when Klara dies; she can communicate with Ruby just as she does with Simon now. She can cross boundaries, like she always wanted to. She can be the bridge.' -

Parallels