i'll fly away, oh glory

It was supposed to be a quick flight, a little over an hour as they plane goes from Hobart to Sydney in Australia. It was almost entirely full, so even with a 92 minute delay, there was no place for the passengers to wander to. As the flight attendants tried their best to keep everyone sane and quiet, finally, the minor repair is taken care of and they can actually get moving. And then, towards the end of the flight, the lady got up from her seat and moved throughout the cabin.

As the lady made her way down the aisle, she looks at the other passengers and starts talking. One by one, she tells them how they will die and when.

While the passengers are stunned for a moment, the lady goes back to her seat and falls asleep for the remainder of the flight. She sleeps until almost everyone else has left the plane, and the flight attendant, Allegra (prediction: 29, self-harm), wakes her up and tells her that it’s time to deplane.

In the weeks and months that follow, the passengers have to decide what to do with the information they’ve been given. Do they make changes to their lives, or do they ignore what the lady said, believing it to be an act of some kind, a desperate bid for attention? They each have to decide for themselves what to do with the information.

The woman predicted to die from cancer goes to her doctor to get tested. The man predicted to die in a work accident ponders taking a year off from work to focus on his family and friends. The mother who was told her son would die at 6 by drowning signs him up for swimming lessons. And they all think more seriously about their mortality, about the purpose of their lives, about how to live better.

And then, a viral video of a car accident. The teenager driving had been on the plane, had been predicted to die in a car accident. Her friend who was also in the car, the one who had ben filming, was also hurt but survived. She was the one who made it public that the woman on the plane had predicted the accident.

Not long after that, an elderly couple, retired doctors, die in close succession of old age. They had also been on the plane. They had also had their deaths predicted. And now, everyone is looking for “The Death Lady,” and feeling the weight of her predictions on their head.

But as anyone knows who has been on a few flights, life never does go quite as predicted. And neither does a novel by master storyteller Liane Moriarty. As these characters wrestle with how to live their lives under the weight of their new knowledge, they experience love and loss, strength and grief, and through it all, the will to live stays strong.

Here One Moment is an exceptional story of humanity and its strength. It is filled with heart and spirit, hope and determination, as these characters find their lives intersecting through their search for answers. This heart-warming and healing novel takes a chain of devastating events and turns them into a triumph. There are so many characters to root for, and just when you think the story is over, there is more hope and strength and love to come.

I have been a fan of Moriarty’s books for years, and I have loved them all. But this one is genuinely something special. It’s a leap into the best of what makes us human, what helps us connect, what gives us hope, what heals our spirits. This is a story that can restore and revive, heal and reveal, and help us fly during difficult times. It’s simply a must read.

Egalleys for Here One Moment were provided by Crown through NetGalley, with many thanks.