Or in the case of the Gold children, Was the fortune teller right? And, if so, do they possess the power to change the course of their own fates and decide their own destiny? That is to say, is our destiny predetermined or do we have a hand in changing what’s destined? Interestingly, the fate of one of the characters specifically gave me pause and caused me to ask whether receiving a dire prediction as the Gold children did, could cause us to force those events to come to pass when they may not have occurred otherwise? So in this way, having too much information could end up working against us. Others remain more cautious than they may have otherwise.Īs I read along, I thought it interesting how the reader is prompted to wonder just how much of our lives are controlled by destiny or sheer luck if you will, and how much of it is controlled by our own conscious choices. Some of them end up more reckless and take more risks than they might have otherwise.

These dire prophecies drive them forward for the rest of their lives, seemingly influencing their decisions and even changing the course of their lives. In so doing, we get to see how their life unfolds knowing this information. So then we get their story, one child’s at a time, and we follow them to the last moments in their lives. Each of them then has to cope with this heavy bit of information, and we get to see what extent it determines how they live their lives. So each of the children, one by one, is called in by the psychic and each one is informed of their death day. The story starts off in 1969 and follows the Gold children who sneak out to get their fortunes told by a mysterious woman who, according to gossip, has the ability to tell you the date that you’re going to die. So this book asks the question: If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life? Or perhaps not, I guess that’s up to the reader to decide.

I guess this is a Literary Fiction novel with just a smidgen of magical realism thrown in.

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