There are many books that revolve around a childhood trauma but this is the first book I've read where the traumatic childhood event involved a gypsy/psychic/rishika. In The Immortalists, the Gold siblings learn the date of their death and we, in turn, learn about their lives (some longer and shorter than others) and how this knowledge from the summer of 1969 affects them.
There were many things I liked about this book: beautiful writing; capturing the essence of the different geographies and time periods; character development and the very unique premise. After the initial introduction to the family and their meeting with the rishika, each subsequent section of the book focused on one of the siblings and their lives as they approach their key date.
The author draws you into the lives of each of the siblings so artfully that you almost forget they "know" the date of their death and you wonder how this impact how they live their lives. Will this knowledge enable them to live fuller lives more quickly? Or will they let this knowledge become a certainty? Daniel says it perhaps the best: "And yet the memory of the woman on Hester Street is like a miniscule needle in his stomach, something he swallowed long ago and which floats, undetectable, except for moments when he moves a certain way and feels a prick."
There's clarity by the end of the book and you may find (as I did) that you're emotionally drained by the time you get to that point.
Thanks to Bookish First and Penguin for the copy of The Immortalists and enabling me to start off 2018 with a wonderful book!
There were many things I liked about this book: beautiful writing; capturing the essence of the different geographies and time periods; character development and the very unique premise. After the initial introduction to the family and their meeting with the rishika, each subsequent section of the book focused on one of the siblings and their lives as they approach their key date.
The author draws you into the lives of each of the siblings so artfully that you almost forget they "know" the date of their death and you wonder how this impact how they live their lives. Will this knowledge enable them to live fuller lives more quickly? Or will they let this knowledge become a certainty? Daniel says it perhaps the best: "And yet the memory of the woman on Hester Street is like a miniscule needle in his stomach, something he swallowed long ago and which floats, undetectable, except for moments when he moves a certain way and feels a prick."
There's clarity by the end of the book and you may find (as I did) that you're emotionally drained by the time you get to that point.
Thanks to Bookish First and Penguin for the copy of The Immortalists and enabling me to start off 2018 with a wonderful book!