The Immortalists
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. Their 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, hoping to control fate. Bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality. 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.
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In the summer of 1969, the four Gold children sneak out of their Lower East Side apartment to visit a fortune-teller said to know the date a person will die. Each one walks out with a private date. The novel follows the four siblings, in turn, across the next half century toward their dates.
The Immortalists was written by Chloe Benjamin and published in 2018. The premise (four siblings learn the dates of their deaths from a fortune-teller) made the novel a major commercial success.
Yes. A series adaptation has been announced for The Immortalists. As of 2025, the project remains in development.
The Immortalists is 415 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Immortalists takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
The Immortalists is a standalone novel by Chloe Benjamin, not part of a series.
The Immortalists is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
