The Measure
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3.9 • 18 Ratings
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
‘GRIPPING AND POIGNANT’ RUTH HOGAN, bestselling author of The Keeper of Lost Things
‘CLEVER AND ENTERTAINING’ GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
‘A THOUGHT-PROVOKING READ’ PRIMA
Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice.
It seems like just another morning.
Around the world, people wake up, check the news, open the front door.
On every doorstep is a box. Inside that box is the exact number of years that person has left to live.
Whether they open it or hide it under their bed, each person must learn to live in this new world: a couple who thought they didn’t have to rush their life together, a doctor who cannot save himself from his own fate, best friends whose dreams are forever entwined, and a politician whose box becomes the powder keg that ultimately changes everything…
Enchanting and deeply uplifting, The Measure is a sweeping, ambitious and invigorating story about family, friendship, hope and destiny that encourages us to live life to the fullest.
‘EXAMINES THE BIG LIFE AND DEATH QUESTIONS IN A CLEVER AND, DARE WE SAY IT, ENTERTAINING WAY’ WOMAN & HOME
‘INTRIGUING’ WOMAN’S WEEKLY
‘LIFE-AFFIRMING’ CHRISTINA DALCHER, bestselling author of Vox
‘DESPITE ITS CHILLING PREMISE, ERLICK’S NOVEL IS AN ESCAPE FROM — RATHER THAN A WINDOW INTO — OUR OWN TERRIFYING REALITY’ NEW YORK TIMES
‘COMPELLING AND HEART-BREAKING’ Bridget Collins, bestselling author of The Binding
'A SHARP LENS FOR REAL-WORLD PROBLEMS' DAILY MAIL
‘A HEARTFELT PARABLE FOR OUR OWN UNPRECEDENTED TIMES’ Laurie Frankel, bestselling author of One Two Three
‘BEAUTIFULLY CRAFTED AND HUGELY IMAGINATIVE’ Claire North
‘BRILLIANT – I COULDN’T STOP READING’ Christina Sweeney-Baird
‘UTTERLY ORIGINAL AND WONDERFULLY MYSTERIOUS’ Jessica Anya Blau, author of Mary Jane
‘HUGELY COMPELLING’ Freya Sampson, author of The Last Chance Library
‘AN IRRESISTIBLE HOOK AND A STRONG EMOTIONAL HEART’ Luke Allnutt, author of We Own the Sky
About the author
Nikki Erlick’s writing has appeared on the websites of New York Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, Newsweek, Cosmopolitan and The Huffington Post. She graduated Harvard University summa cum laude and is a former editor of The Harvard Crimson. She earned a master's degree in Global Thought from Columbia University. The Measure is her debut novel.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
How would people behave if they knew the length of their lives, asks the moving but predictable debut novel from Erlick. One night, mysterious wooden boxes appear outside every door on Earth, each holding a string, the length of which corresponds to how long its recipient will live, which the recipients begin to figure out and share on social media. Erlick introduces seemingly unconnected characters as they grapple with the news. There's Hank, a physician who joins a support group for "short-stringers"; Jack, the long-stringed scion of a Kennedy-like political family; and Maura and Nina, a couple two years into their relationship, whose contentment is ruptured when they find that Maura's string is half the length of Nina's. Some people, like Nina's sister, Amie, choose not to look at their strings at all, but even conscious abstainers cannot deny the strings' devastating impact. Then, a charismatic and villainous presidential candidate looks to capitalize on an older generation's fears over the short-stringers and the hell they could raise. Late-breaking connections between the characters feel more schematic than revelatory, and details of diverse supporting players such as Jack's Latino college roommate, who "couldn't afford to be seen as failure," read like paint-by-numbers. Still, the scenes of grief and love are poignant. There's plenty of drama, but overall, it's a bit too anodyne.
Customer Reviews
Great idea but lacking in plot
A novel idea but I prefer a book with a plot with twists and turns which this book doesn’t have. It’s a decent story about a group of people who are connected in some way but I found the second half of the book a little tedious as I was waiting for a plot to develop.