We hope you’re enjoying our Capsule Book Club recommendations! This month we’re pondering some big questions after reading Liane Moriarty’s fantastic new read, Here One Moment, which, of course, is available at The Warehouse now! (And click through for our previous instalments!)
CAPSULE X THE WAREHOUSE
Many years ago, I found myself in a strange thought experiment (aka, a late-night brain spiral.)
I couldn’t sleep so started reading something, which then somehow mentioned The Death Clock – an online calculator where you pop in details like your age, BMI, typical alcohol consumption, diet, how much you exercise, what your general outlook on life tends to be, etc. and it then spits out the exact date it expects you will die.
It’s exactly the kind of thing you should avoid doing in the middle of the night.
But, like all decisions made after midnight, I made the terrible choice to give the Death Clock a whirl. Five minutes later, yes, confronting the idea of my mortality was a lot to consider, but I was actually pretty happy when it predicted my death would come during my mid 80s.
I had a strange feeling of peace wash over me – I had all the time in the world! I still had more than 50 years to go! Woohoo! The pressure was off!
But then a little something inside of me had a different thought. Should you really live each day as though you have more than 20,000 more left? Because really, what did this calculator actually know? It was working on averages.
It wasn’t to know if I were to accidentally step in front of a bus the next morning, or choke on my cereal in a week’s time, or be finally hunted down by a serial killer within the month (something I often thought was imminent at the time because I was living alone and listening to too many murder podcasts). What if something like that DID happen!?!
If I knew I was going to die in a day, a week or a month, I’d live life a lot differently, right? Eighty-something wasn’t guaranteed – what would I change about my life if I knew my lot would be up much sooner?
Did I sleep well that night? No, I certainly did not.
This month – maybe eight years down the track from that night – I was a few chapters into Liane Moriarty’s newest book, Here One Moment, when I was transported right back to that thought experiment: If you knew you were going to die, what would you do differently?
If you’re not sure if you know who Liane Moriarty is, chances are you actually most certainly do. She’s an Australian author who has written nine novels, many of which have been turned into TV series. That includes Big Little Lies (starring Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman), Nine Perfect Strangers (also starring Nicole Kidman alongside Melissa McCarthy) and Apples Never Fall (Annette Benning and Sam Neill) – with many others currently in different stages of development.
I loved Big Little Lies, as well as Truly Madly Guilty and some of her first novels, like What Alice Forgot. I have to admit I’ve loved her more recent novels much less… that is, until I picked up her latest one and now, it’s easily one of my favourites.
Here One Moment follows the unwitting passengers onboard a pretty unremarkable flight from Hobart to Sydney – that is, until just before landing a grey-haired woman (later dubbed “The Death Lady”) stands up and works her way through the cabin, telling each passenger the age they will die, as well as their cause of death, whether they want to know it or not. Many obsess over the prediction, some laugh it off – others didn’t even pay enough attention to hear theirs in the first place.
But then, a few months later, a passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then… two more passengers die – again, just as she said they would.
The remaining passengers are then left to grapple with their differing feelings – do they believe that the Death Lady really does know their fate? Can they change or dodge their destiny? Or, what can they do to make the most of the time they have left?
This book is brilliantly constructed – at 512 pages, it’s not short, but I flew through it. Liane is masterful at creating well-rounded, completely believable characters – most of them reminded me of people I’ve met who often remind you of people you know or have met. It’s a skill that is particularly important in this novel, as each chapter we hear from one of five passengers the book follows, plus the viewpoint of The Death Lady. Her characters are so well formed, that despite the chapters not being labelled with whose perspective you’re reading, it only takes a few seconds to realise and remember all you need to know about them.
Personally, I found The Death Lady to be one of the least interesting characters, so I found myself wanting to skip through her chapters at times to find out what the heck was happening with the other characters.
A slight spoiler alert – one of the passengers is a woman juggling a toddler and a baby onboard, and she definitely doesn’t want a prediction. But she gets one for herself, as well as prediction for both of her children, including the news that her infant son will die at age seven, as a result of drowning. Oh my holy heck I felt that prediction like a bullet in my chest and found her chapters (and her anxiety around the whole thing) to be, at times, quite distressing. I could only imagine how I would react (probably quite similar in that I would begin obsessively taking my child to swimming lessons). And if her perspective doesn’t unsettle you, there’s very likely another one of the five that speaks to you and leaves you with plenty to think about.
But somehow, despite the heaviness of the topic – and some of the chapters – I found this book to be so uplifting and positive. They say that it’s only when you’re faced with your own mortality that you can truly begin to appreciate life – and this book sure does just that. I wholeheartedly recommend it.