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    The Immortalists
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    The Immortalists
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    The Immortalists
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Immortalists

    Written by Chloe Benjamin

    Narrated by Maggie Hoffman

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A dazzling family love story reminiscent of Everything I Never Told You from a novelist heralded by Lorrie Moore as a "great new talent."

    If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life?

    It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children—four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness—sneak out to hear their fortunes.

    The prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden-boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in '80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son Daniel seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality.

    A sweeping novel of remarkable ambition and depth, The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next. It is a deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 9, 2018
    ISBN9780525497639
    Unavailable
    The Immortalists
    Author

    Chloe Benjamin

    Chloe Benjamin is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Immortalists and The Anatomy of Dreams, which won the Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award. She is a graduate of Vassar College and The University of Wisconsin-Madison MFA program. Learn more at ChloeBenjaminBooks.com.

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    Reviews for The Immortalists

    4/5

    1,067 ratings99 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this one - the power "knowing" when you will die can have over you is very well executed in this novel told from the perspective of 4 children who have been given this information by a fortune teller. It was interesting how all of the stories blended together without fully relying on each other. Great read -
    • 5/5
      Four siblings visit a "seer" and learn the date of their deaths. Self fulfilling prophecy or was she able to see the future. Really enjoyed this book.
    • 1/5
      Ugh, ugh and ugh! What is with all the 5 star reviews? Seriously? The premise sounded okay, but anything worthy ended there. Four kids learn the day they will die. I assumed it would be about how you would live your life if you knew. It wasn't at all. So much could have been done with this. Instead, it was super pretentious with every controversial topic thrown in, but no true substance. I agree with the reviewer who said if there is a character who wants to be a magician, put it down. This book was truly painful to get through. Poorly drawn characters - nothing redeeming about them. Everything was so predictable. I kept hoping it would get better or come together, but it actually kept getting worse. It is frightening to me that so many people liked it!
    • 4/5
      Combines magic and science, destiny and self-determination in an interesting, well written family saga of how we live the live.
    • 5/5
      A very gripping, sometimes disturbing and unsettling, read. I couldn't put it down, and found myself very interested in the characters. Simon, in particular, is heartbreaking for me.
    • 2/5
      I started this in July and never got around to finishing it until November. That says all you need to know about how I viewed this book. It was written as four seemingly separate stories, but could have tied together much better than they did. I get the message behind it, but I just feel there could have been so much more to this book. Overall, I was disappointed.
    • 5/5
      Benjamin’s story is about a Jewish family. Their story begins in 1969 with four siblings who go to a fortune teller who gives each of them the date of their death. The book is separated by sections, each for one sibling. Their stories are vastly different and mostly tragic. The book ends with the most optimistic outcome, one that gives the book some relief for the reader. I enjoyed this book, although I’m normally not a big fan of fiction, especially fiction of this nature. The books is wll written and the plot is nicely planned and delivered. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well written, creative plot.
    • 4/5
      Another 'Not what I was expecting' novel, but in a good way. New York, 1969: four siblings visit a fortune teller who predicts the exact dates of their deaths. Simon, who knows he will die young, leaves home for San Francisco, where he makes fearless but fateful choices. Klara takes up magic but can't escape reality. Daniel struggles to deal with the predictions and takes his anger out on the fortune teller. And Varya treats her life like a scientific experiment, afraid to reach out even though she has been given the longest span of years. Each character claims a quarter of the book, telling their story, and some are more engaging than others - I loved reading about Simon, throwing himself into the San Francisco gay scene before meeting calm, grounded Robert, and discovering the unnamed disease which finally claims him, and Gertie, the Gold family matriarch, who loses her husband and three of her children, but gains a bright and talented granddaughter, Ruby. I was anticipating more of a fantasy story, to be honest, but really enjoyed reading about these four otherwise ordinary brothers and sisters whose lives are ruled by the expectation of death. If you thought you knew when you were supposed to die, would you live life to the full, reject the everyday, fight the inevitable, feel free from uncertainty, or fear tempting fate? Would you be a fatalist or a hedonist? A very thoughtful novel, with sympathetic characters.
    • 4/5
      Four siblings are haunted by a woman who tells them when they will die. For three of the four siblings, the power of suggestion proves correct.
    • 4/5
      The story was good and the premise was interesting.
    • 5/5
      I adored this book, it's not necessarily an uplifting read and it is depressing as shit, but that doesn't even matter. It's beautiful and lyrical and I loved it. When the four Gold siblings were just children they sought out a famed fortune teller to find out when their death date was. Unbeknownst to them, that small act had such control on their lives. Each section focuses on a different Gold child and how they lived out their lives. Some were fated to die young, and most end tragically. Each section picks up where the last life ended, featuring a timeline of the Gold's lives from first to die, to last. Simon ends up in California as a liberated gay man, Klara pursues her dream of magic, Daniel becomes a doctor, and the eldest Varya, a scientist. Their lives couldn't have been led more differently and yet their sense of future and death lead them on strangely similar journeys. Wonderful, literary fiction at its finest!
    • 4/5
      Four siblings are told the day of their deaths by a fortune teller. Each one deals with the news differently. The rest of the book tells their four separate, but overlapping stories. Passionate and careless Simon moves to San Francisco, Klara becomes a magician and struggles to balance reality and her dreams, Daniel is skeptical of everything and becomes a doctor, Varya is a medical researcher who longs for order to ward off her grief. Some of the stories are stronger than others, but the writing is beautiful. It took me awhile to get into it and feel connected to the characters, but I enjoyed the book in the end. The overall message is one of living life to the fullest. You can’t control your fate, but you can choose how to live your life.
    • 5/5
      4.5 stars. Engrossing and hard to put down. So many thoughts and so many feels.
    • 4/5
      A family saga about life and death, faith and destiny and how you choose to live your life knowing the exact day your own death.Do you live it differently with that knowledge or do you try to cheat death itself?A deeply profound read that leaves a lot of room for speculation and pause for thought.
    • 3/5
      I picked this up because I saw it was one of the first few choices given as Jimmy Fallon's original NBC Tonight Show Book Club. (He ended up choosing a different book for the first one, which I hope to read down the road... Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi.)
      It was a really interesting story about four siblings who go to see a fortune teller to find out when they will die. The story that follows is each sibling's life, with regards to what the fortune teller told them. (She insisted on seeing them each separately.)
      The story begins with them as small children in 1969 and ends up in present day, so it really held a great appeal for me, as that ran the span of my own current lifetime.
      While I liked the way the story was written and I found each character interesting and captivating, something about this book put me off a bit. I had a hard time getting "caught up" in it. It wasn't so much that I didn't want to continue. I was always interested in it, I wanted to continue reading it... but I wasn't DYING to know what happened next. I'd recommend to others, though--hopefully other readers will find it more captivating than I did.
    • 4/5
      Four siblings, while in their youth, visit a fortune teller one afternoon, who tells each of them, in turn (and in private), the exact date in which they will die. The story then devotes a section to each sibling as they age, and yes, eventually meet their deaths. I really liked the idea behind this book. It was intriguing and thought-provoking. After all, if you knew the date in which you were going to die, would it change the way you lived? Maybe, maybe not. But I really felt like the story was missing something. It had so much potential. I could just imagine the amount of angst one might feel if they knew their death day was soon approaching. But I never felt like any of the characters in this book exhibited that type of angst. Yes, it was interesting to see how each sibling lived their life differently from one another, but I'm not convinced that their life choices were influenced by the knowledge they received at a younger age. The story itself was decent, but I really thought it could've been so much more than it was.
    • 5/5
      I love books with alternating perspectives, so this novel told in four interconnected but sequential chunks was a fun structure for me. Each sibling's story almost stands alone, but the whole is so much more than the sum of its parts. For awhile I thought it was good, and by the end I was thoroughly impressed. I'd give it 4.5 stars but I'm rounding up here.
    • 4/5
      This book was fantastic. It started off rather slowly, in my opinion, and it took me a while to really get into it, but as soon as I got past the prologue, I was hooked.

      So many questions arise as you're reading. Well, actually, there were two that really kept nagging at me.

      First, are all the siblings going to die on their supposed death day? I loved that the book was structured into four parts, one for each sibling, so that you had to wait until the very end of each segment to find out if the prophecy came true.

      Second, how much of the fortune teller's prophecy came true because it was real and was always going to come true, and how much of it was influenced by knowing that date and fearing it?

      Love, love, love. Awesome book.
    • 4/5
      I read this for my two book discussion groups I lead. Last night I had the first discussion and it went great! So many things to talk about made for a really good discussion.
    • 5/5
      I am in love with Chloe Benjamin’s writing. I plan to buy her other book The Anatomy of Dreams as soon as possible. I hope to read many more of her books in the future. I really hope she continues writing. I really believe this book should be a Pulitzer winner. Oh my goodness, what a concept, to know the date of your death. And then for it to come true for 3 of the 4 siblings. I loved the Golds. I was saddened when each of them passed away. I loved how the sections were broken down by sibling yet still tied the story and family together. At first I was not sure about Varya’s section but in the end she won me over. My favorite sibling was Klara, though. My next favorite character was Ruby. This book was so amazing, the plot, the character development, the spanning of time. I can tell Benjamin really did her research. Thanks Bookish First for introducing me to Benjamin and for sending me a copy in exchange for my review.
    • 4/5
      I was going to give this book a 3 until I got to the last 1/4 of the book. Be prepared for the 1st child's life story as he was very promiscuous, and the author makes sure to give details on what the person was doing. I could have done without the details. The people make sure crazy decisions, but it all goes back to knowing the day of their death. I found this book to be interesting. Probably more of 3.5 stars.
    • 2/5
      The concept of this book is rather intriguing, however, I don't think that the product did the concept justice. What would you, how would you live your life if you knew the date that you were going to die? This book centers around that concept for 4 children who learn the date their date from a gypsy/foretuneteller. Each child is told in private a date and then they are sent away. One is told he will die young, another will live to old age, and the others are given various dates. Interesting idea but then it seems that the stories are contrived to live to those dates rather than giving the reader other possibilities. The characters were not likeable and the only portion that seem realistic at all was the dysfunction of the family. I read it for my book club. otherwise I would have ditched it early on.
    • 4/5
      I don't like magicians. I'm not in any way interested in religions. So I started the book and I didn't get far along when I realised there is magic involved and there is religion involved. I kept on reading, however, and I am very happy that I did. This was a powerful read, very touching and beautiful. Thestories were sad, so very sad, but for me they also tasted like life. Each in its different way. The gypsy woman's profecy brings an intersting framework without taking over the stories. Kept me in its grip all the way through!
    • 3/5
      The 4 Gold children have decided to visit a psychic on Hester Street to see if she can indeed predict the day of each of their deaths. The children are allowed entry into her apartment separately and sent out to the street. Each child learns that date on their own.We really only learn that some are given dates that will not make them very old when death is to occur. We get to know each child for a short period of time before their demises. That is what I didn't like about the novel. We don't really learn a lot about their personalities from an early stage. The characters are very strong while we are with them. You do fall in love with each of them, whatever their quirks are.
    • 3/5
      This novel has an interesting premise. Four siblings visit a gypsy woman who is rumored to be able to give the exact date of a person’s death. After hearing her predictions, each child deals with the news in their own way, although their knowing seems to deeply affect the choices they make in life.As children, they were very close, but as adults, they barely have a relationship with each other. In fact, I felt all of them led a very lonely existence. Obviously, this is a dark, depressing story.Once they hit adulthood, the focus is on each sibling’s life until the day of their death. We see how their stories merge and how each death affects the remaining family members.I can’t say I really liked the story, but I was compelled to keep reading, mostly out of curiosity. Readers should be aware that there is some explicit sexual content and suicide mentioned in the story.Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam/GP Putnam’s Sons for allowing me an advance copy to read and give my honest review.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic book. Four adolescent Jewish siblings in 1969 NYC visit a woman who told each of them the exact date on which they would die. None of them ever forgot their death date and they all reacted in different ways as to how they would live their lives with that knowledge. Each section of the book follows one sibling, from the earliest to die to the last. Throughout their stories, we also learn more about their relationships with their parent and siblings, as kids as well as at present. I thought the premise of the book to be very unique and it went much deeper than I was expecting. I found myself pondering how I would have lived my life knowing when it would end.
    • 2/5
      So this was the book that made the front cover of Book page for this month? I honestly don't know why. I didn't like any of the characters and I only felt sympathy for the eldest daughter at the very end of the book when it was almost too late to care. The narrator's voice of the mother was insufferable (Yes, I get that she was a Jewish mama from New York. It was still annoying). 2.5 stars
    • 4/5
      The Immortalists is a book that I read for f2f bookclub. I disliked somethings and I liked somethings but I think this book will make for a great book discussion so was perfect as a bookclub choice. The author, Chloe Benjamin, is San Francisco Native, and this is her second book. She recieved recognition for her debut novel The Anatomy of Dreams. The Immortalists is a New York Times Bestseller, #1 Indie Next Pick for January 2018, Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, #1 Library Reads pick, and Amazon Best Book of the Month. This book has a touch of San Francisco, the east coast, and the midwest with honorable mention of Minnesota and Wisconsin. The book is the story of 4 siblings who in boredom and adventure seek out a fortune teller who tells them when they will die. I did like the addition of the Rom's. I've had some personal encounters in my life with this people group. So I found that interesting, too. The book is told in four sections featuring each sibling and how they chose to live their lives, how this information effected them or did not effect them. From the first to die to the one that will live to nearly 90. Quote: ...home was in the rhythm of the halakhah: the daily prayer, the weekly Sabbath, the annual holy days. In time was their culture. In time, no in space, was their home. First what I did not like because really that is only a small part. I thought the first life of the youngest was the descriptive sexual content. I do not think descriptive content is necessary to tell stories and I try very hard to avoid erotica and this section, while it addresses an important part of history was too descriptive. I do think the author caught the urgency of youth to experience life and to be sexual without thinking of consequences was done very well. This part of story was very descriptive of time and place. The other thing I felt was that the author may have put too much effort into placing her book in time and place. It felt overwritten, like she didn't want to miss anything so she was covering everything. I had just read A Little Life where the author chose not to tie her book to the culture, to avoid that was to create a timeless work. That made such a contrast with this book. I also found one glaring statement that is not true. The author states that it is possible to know a persons risk for mental illness through genetic testing. There is no genetic tests that our diagnostic for schizophrenia or other mental illnesses. We can know genetic loading by looking at family history, but to find a gene, that does not exist. We can find neurological disorders like Huntington's but that is a neurological disorder. What I liked; this is a bit harder to flesh out. I liked the Jewishness of the book. I thought the author really brought that to life. I liked the end, I liked the emphasis on "live in the moment", enjoy life. We all die, don't let that get in the way. Love people, don't let time interfere with relationships because you can't get it back.
    • 5/5
      This book got a lot of press in the beginning of the year but I was busy reading books for the Tournament of Books. It deserved all the press it got. The four siblings know when their death is coming and it shapes their lives in 4 very different interesting ways. The book explored this sibling by sibling and each sibling approached it in a very different manner. A unique, thought provoking book.
    • 3/5
      A rather dark and depressing novel. While it was probably the happiest, I had the hardest time with Varya's story.