The Immortalists

UK Edition From Tinder Press

It's 1969, and holed up in a grimy tenement building in New York's Lower East Side is a travelling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the date they will die. The four Gold children, too young for what they're about to hear, sneak out to learn their fortunes.

Over the years that follow, the siblings must choose how to live with the prophecies the fortune-teller gave them that day. Will they accept, ignore, cheat or defy them? Golden-boy Simon escapes to San Francisco, searching for love; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician; eldest son Daniel tries to control fate as an army doctor after 9/11; and bookish Varya looks to science for the answers she craves.

A sweeping novel of remarkable ambition and depth, The Immortalists is a story about how we live, how we die, and what we do with the time we have.

”Extravagantly enjoyable... Benjamin crams her novel with incident, while never stinting on detail. Such is her dazzling sureness of touch that you wonder if here is a writer who is truly capable of anything.”

Claire Allfree, Daily Mail

Ingenious... a prismatic philosophical conundrum... a boundlessly moving inquisition into mortality, grief and passion... The Immortalists is not just a novel about grief; it conjures characters with such dimension that you mourn them too, a magic rare enough to leave one astonished.

The Observer

“The tale of four siblings marked in childhood by a terrible prophecy, [THE IMMORTALISTS] careers through time and tragedy with the reader in tow, as deft and dizzying as a high-wire act... As the novel deepens, the reader is beguiled with unexpected twists and stylish, crisp prose... This ambitious, unorthodox tale may change you. Chloe Benjamin is a writer to watch.

The Economist

“Ambitious and literary... Immersive and impressive.

The Sunday Times

“Mesmerising, like a well-crafted illusion... like any good soothsayer, Benjamin knows how to persuade: she makes you suspend disbelief, drawing you in with deft storytelling and with the richly imagined post-prophecy lives of the Golds... One of the great pleasures of The Immortalists is that it is so incisive about families, and particularly about the bonds between siblings... Benjamin has an extraordinary ability to write about family tensions, the cracks over which you cannot safely step, the unwilled love that keeps people close despite all the fissures... Benjamin is a gifted writer, a creator of quiet asides and haunting images who mines a seam of sad wisdom.

Financial Times

“Extravagantly enjoyable... Big themes of fate and free will, superstition and rationalism, guilt and legacy bounce back and forth with the lightness of ping-pong balls through this rambunctious novel, as each vividly drawn character grapples with the question of how to live. Benjamin crams her novel with incident, while never stinting on detail. Such is her dazzling sureness of touch that you wonder if here is a writer who is truly capable of anything.

Claire Allfree, Daily Mail

“Once I started reading The Immortalists, I resented every moment I had to spend away from the book until I’d finished. It’s an extraordinarily moving, beautifully told and, at times, almost unbearably tense read.

Stylist

“A stunning, immersive novel, which has echoes of Donna Tartt and Elizabeth Strout, but Benjamin’s gift for story-telling is all her own. It’s a novel that you’ll lose yourself in and foist on all your friends and will still be thinking about it long after you’ve read the final page. I expect this one to be on all the book award shortlists for 2018 and deservedly so.

Red Magazine 

“Benjamin writes with verve and charm and her four protagonists are resolutely real. The novel begins in Technicolor, with all the eager vitality of youth, and gradually slows and darkens as the weight of loss accumulates, casting a long shadow over the siblings who remain. It is a testament to Benjamin’s skill that, as her story pulls focus from the wild nightclubs of the Castro and the glitter of Las Vegas to life in the suburbs, as youthful exhilaration and recklessness give way to grief and anger and frustration and fear, the novel itself does not narrow but instead grows deeper and more absorbing.

Clare Clark, The Guardian

“The four siblings were so real to me that when I turned the last page I immediately missed their company. I was fascinated by the idea of knowing the date of one’s death and seeing how each character in The Immortalists handled that knowledge, but maybe even more than that, I loved how Benjamin conveyed the intimate details of these people, which made them and their stories come alive.

Claire Fuller, author of OUR ENDLESS NUMBERED DAYS

“Benjamin is at turns funny, tragic, informative, and mystical. And, like a good magic act, you’ll be wondering what on earth she’ll pull out of the hat next. The Immortalists demands to be discussed, dissected, and pondered long after reading.

Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of HARMLESS LIKE YOU

“THE IMMORTALISTS made me want to hug my siblings. I couldn’t put it down.

Carys Bray

“Skilled storytelling, a complex structure that spans decades and vivid characters make this an intelligent, entertaining read.

Woman & Home

“A wonderful story of family and life.

Prima

“One for those who like a rich story along the lines of Manhattan Beach or The Time Traveler’s Wife.

Irish Times