New fiction
“Here One Moment,” by Liane Moriarty. It’s an ordinary flight. A short delay, then a short flight. Nothing unusual to indicate what was going to happen once the plane was in the air. Not long after everyone settles into their seats a woman stands up and begins to foretell how her fellow passengers are going to die. Many will be fortunate to live long lives, but for six others the Grim Reaper will be knock, knock, knocking on their door before too long. Allegra will die at age 28. Cancer will get Sue in a few years while her husband lives into his 90s. Ethan is told he’ll die after his next birthday. Passengers laugh and tell themselves there’s always at least one kook on a flight. But soon no one is laughing. One of the passengers is dead, and died in the manner the woman foretold. Then two more passengers perish, again in the way predicted. And then the next die and so on. The incidents bring questions to the mind: if you knew when you were to die, would you be doing things differently? Or would you be anxiously trying to find a way to escape the Grim Reaper’s net?