

Did you believe the fortune teller? What gives the fortune teller her power? What freedoms does uncertainty bĩ. At the end of the novel, Gertie tells Varya about the beauty and freedom in uncertainty, questioning why her children believed the fortune teller. How are their lives affected by the prophecy? How do romantic and familial relationships interact and contrast in The Immortalists?Ĩ. Discuss the siblings' significant others: Raj, Mira, and Robert. How do magic and reality blur in the novel? Were there any particular moments that seemed to defy logic? Why are certain characters drawn to magic and the unknowable more than others?ħ. In what ways does family history shape us? What kind of legacies do the four siblings leave behind?Ħ.

At its heart, The Immortalists is a family love story, exploring both past and future generations of the Gold family. The power of belief-whether it be magic, religious faith, or storytelling-is an important theme in the novel. What was your reading experience when you switched sections? Did you identify more closely with certain siblings?Ĥ. The Immortalists is narrated by the four siblings in separate sections. In what ways do these locations affect the characters? Why do you think all four of the siblings moved away from New York City?ģ. The novel takes place in very different settings-1960s New York City, the San Francisco dance scene, glitzy Las Vegas hotels. The Immortalists explores the degree to which we shape our own destinies-do you believe that the siblings' fate was preordained? Why or why not?Ģ. It is a deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds.1. 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 and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality.Ī sweeping novel of remarkable ambition and depth, The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next. The prophecies inform their next five decades.


The Gold children-four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness-sneak out to hear their fortunes. 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.
