The Immortalists

The Immortalists is a 2018 New York Times bestselling novel by Chloe Benjamin. In the Prologue, the four Gold children, Varya, Daniel, Klara, and Simon, visit a Romani fortuneteller named Bruna Costello. Bruna predicts when each of the children will die. The novel’s four parts describe each sibling’s path through life, and, in the end, three of them—Simon, Klara, and Daniel—all die exactly when Bruna predicted.

Simon Gold moves to San Francisco after the death of his father, Saul Gold. Simon is a gay man who works as a go-go dancer at a nightclub. He begins taking ballet lessons after falling in love with the art form and becomes a company member. He also begins a relationship with Robert, an older, skilled dancer. After having unprotected sex with men outside of his relationship, Simon contracts AIDS and dies at the age of 20.

Klara Gold, who moved to San Francisco with her brother, deals with Simon’s death by abusing alcohol. She also works on her magic act, which she performs in bars. While working one night, she reconnects with an old friend named Raj Chandra, and the two build a relationship. They eventually marry, and Klara gives birth to a girl named Ruby. Klara and Raj cannot afford to live in San Francisco; they move to Las Vegas where a large hotel books Klara’s magic act. As she prepares for her opening, Klara hears knocking sounds that she believes to be Simon and Saul communicating with her from the dead. On her opening night, she hangs herself at the age of 33.

Daniel Gold reconnects with Raj and Ruby over Thanksgiving. Daniel has just been suspended from his job as a military doctor. He also connects with Eddie O’Donoghue, an FBI agent who is investigating Klara’s death. Through Eddie, Daniel learns that Bruna is part of a large Romani family the FBI has been pursuing for fraud. When the FBI drops the charges against Bruna, Daniel takes matters into his own hands and finds Bruna. He questions her with a gun, and, as he threatens to shoot her, Eddie arrives and kills Daniel.

Varya Gold is 10 years into a 20-year anti-aging research study on apes. Luke Van Galder poses as a journalist to interview her about the study. At the end of the week, Varya realizes that Luke is the son she gave up for adoption in her twenties. Varya compromises the results of the study by feeding a chimp and must resign. She works on rebuilding her relationship with her son and goes to therapy for her obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)