Chloe Benjamin

press release: If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life? It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. In search of one thing they can know for sure, the Gold children–four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness–sneak out to hear their fortunes.

Though the siblings keep the dates secret from one another, their prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden-boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in 1980s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son, Daniel, seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11, hoping to control fate; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality.