Here One Moment
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4.2 • 1.5K Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the beloved author of Big Little Lies, Apples Never Fall, and The Husband’s Secret comes a moving novel of love, marriage, family, and trying to find certainty in a fragile world.
“The premise is irresistible—a woman on a flight from Hobart to Sydney begins predicting the age and manner of death of her fellow passengers. Beautifully written, this propulsive novel has a serious theme. Could be a great . . . present for that special someone.”—Stephen King
“A riveting story so wild you don’t know how she’ll land it, and then she does, on a dime.”—Anne Lamott
AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Life is full of twists and turns you never see coming. But what if you did?
Flight attendant Allegra Patel loves her job, but today is her twenty-eighth birthday and she’d rather not be placating a plane full of passengers unhappy about a long delay. There’s the well-dressed man in seat 4C desperate not to miss his daughter’s musical. A harried mother frantically tries to keep her toddler and baby quiet. Honeymooners still in their wedding finery dream of their new lives, while a chatty emergency room nurse dreams of retirement.
Suddenly a woman traveling alone stands. She walks down the aisle making predictions about how and when passengers will die. Some dismiss her, they don’t believe in psychics. Some are delighted with her prophecies! Their lives will supposedly be long. Others are appalled.
Then: a few months later, the first prediction comes true.
Intricately plotted, with the wonderful wit Liane Moriarty has become famous for, Here One Moment brilliantly looks at friends, lovers, and family and how we manage to hold onto them in our harried modern lives.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A strange incident on an otherwise ordinary airline flight forces its passengers to take a new look at their lives in this thoughtful and entertaining novel from superstar author Liane Moriarty. After travelers board an Australian jet flying from Hobart to Sydney, a woman approaches each of them and calmly tells them how they will die and at what age. Some are bemused, others are offended or frightened, but everyone takes notice when, a few months later, her predictions start to come true. Moriarty cleverly shifts back and forth between the Death Lady sharing her life story and the ways her predictions impact others on the flight. The result is a witty, frequently moving, and always thought-provoking meditation on life and how we live it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A woman upends strangers' lives by predicting their deaths in the powerful latest from bestseller Moriarty (Apples Never Fall). Travelers aboard a delayed flight from Hobart, Australia, to Sydney are already on edge when a woman stands, points at a fellow passenger, and pronounces, "I expect catastrophic stroke. Age seventy-two." She moves down the aisle, foretelling the causes and ages of death of several more passengers before the cabin crew intervenes. She then sleeps until landing and disembarks as though nothing had happened. Most assume the "soothsayer" has mental health problems—until one of her prognostications comes true three months later. Everyone is rattled, but none more than the other passengers she hit with premonitions: a nurse apparently slated to get terminal cancer, a young mother and swim instructor whose child will supposedly drown, and starry-eyed newlyweds whose marriage (which their families look down upon) will purportedly end in "intimate partner homicide." Moriarty's meticulously plotted tale—which follows each of the doomed passengers as they reckon with their alleged fate—rivets even as it thoughtfully contemplates free will, determinism, and the value of living passionately. The exquisitely rendered characters earn readers' full investment as they contemplate how much credence to give the Damoclean sword hanging over their heads, and the pinwheeling narrative maintains near-constant tension. Moriarty has outdone herself.
Customer Reviews
Great Read
Love the path between power of suggestion and fear that is drawn throughout the book.
Incredibly moving
Completely enthralling and told in such a beautiful way.
My least favorite Liane Moriarty book
I have been a loyal reader of Liane Moriarty’s books since before she got big. Usually, I cannot put her books down. This one, I had to make myself finish it. It is so long and drawn out and the ending is just not satisfying.