Four children, siblings, visit a woman who tells them the date that they will die. This book is about how they deal with that knowledge and basically leaves the reader asking, is it better to know? Is it possible to live with that knowledge and not let it change you?

It was interesting to read a story that had threads of Judaism throughout. It's not something I'm exposed to very often and it was interesting to see how it informed all four of the Gold siblings lives even though none of them were religious. It was just another way in which they all had the same start and turned it into different paths.

I liked the way that the story follows each of the siblings in turn, letting you watch their fate (or is it really all just choice?) unfold.

Spoiler

Simon's story broke my heart, though as a character he made me really angry because of how he treated Robert. Klara's story fell totally flat for me because I just did not believe that someone with that much life would take her own. Daniel's story was aggravating for the same reason; he seemed too level-headed to go off half-cocked after the fortune teller. I was happy his wife moved on; she deserved better. Varya's story was also heart-breaking, though I liked that she didn't die at the end. I felt like she was finally free from worrying about it, and so it didn't matter if she died on the predicted day or not.