New York City is such an important setting at the beginning of the novel.

Did this narrative decision work for you? Was there one narration that you preferred over the others? Which sibling did you identify with the most, and why?

The Immortalists is broken into four sections, each told from the perspective of a different sibling.Let’s break them down a little bit more with some specific book club discussion questions. There are heavy, existential questions Benjamin asks the reader to grapple with in this book. Do the Gold siblings fulfill their fates because it was predestined? Or were they pushed in that direction because of what the fortune teller told them? Do we have the ability to change our fates, or are we all on a trajectory that cannot be altered? How does death motivate us? That’s one of the main questions Benjamin wants to explore in this novel.īut there’s also the issue of fate versus free will, and that’s a big question in The Immortalists. Benjamin explores that motivation in this book, and she heightens it by giving her characters’ lives a specific timeline. We act differently because we know we only have so much time on this planet. Whether we like to think about it or not, impending death motivates us. We all know death is coming for us, but the Gold siblings believe they know exactly when their death will come. Well, let’s get the big one out of the way first: death. By signing up you agree to our terms of use Themes Explored in The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin Thank you for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox.

The immortalists novel