I loved this dive into the repercussions of a seemingly psychic woman's predictions of demise for her fellow passengers on a flight. Characters scoff, become resigned, or work to control their futures as they face issues surrounding their mortality.
Flight attendant Allegra Patel loves her work--despite the sometimes-bossy passengers, their overstuffed baggage, and the fallout from someone's inevitable air sickness.
But on today's flight, an elderly woman is causing a major disruption. She's going through the plane as if in a trance, announcing expected ages of and causes of death for each person aboard.
From the overworked dad trying to make it home in time for his daughter's musical, to the mother of two young, crying children, to a spry older couple, to Allegra herself, the Death Lady (as she is later called) announces a prediction of each person's age of and cause of demise.
Here One Moment traces what begins to happen as the first of the Death Lady's predictions seem to come true and each passenger considers the prospect of their own immortality--and for some, what seems to be their imminent death.
Here One Moment tracks many characters' subsequent dilemmas and decision-making, in a few cases delving back into their past to set a stage for current-day events--and building a rich story of the life of the Death Lady herself.
I love a book that considers life and death and inspires me to do the same, and Moriarty shapes each character's path forward in varied ways. They are thoughtful, dismissive, daring, resigned, afraid, negligent, or determined; they defy their prediction, or try to control their fate, or recognize how they most want to live out their days and make new choices.
I wasn't sure how Moriarty was going to tie up the many loose ends, but by the time the book ended, I felt like the story offered an appropriate amount of open-ended aspects, with more resolution and satisfaction than I'd anticipated.
I listened to Here One Moment as an audiobook, and I loved hearing the Australian accents.
For more Bossy reviews of books about mortality, please check out the titles at this link.
I'd love to hear your Bossy thoughts about this story!
Liane Moriarty is also the author of Three Wishes, The Last Anniversary, What Alice Forgot, The Hypnotist's Love Story, The Husband's Secret, Big Little Lies, Truly Madly Guilty, Nine Perfect Strangers, and Apples Never Fall.
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