Novel mainly set in AUSTRALIA

28th October 2024

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty, novel set mainly in Australia.

Here one moment … gone the next. That phrase perfectly sums up the tenet of this novel.

Cabin attendant Allegra is part of the crew aboard a short flight from Hobart to Sydney, due to last just short of two hours. There is a delay in taking off due a malfunctioning seat buckle in the cockpit. The later departure time is an issue for some passengers but others just settle into their seats and go with the flow, enjoying the complimentary nuts that are soon served.

Then an older woman gets up, pauses briefly to gather her wits and no-one pays much attention to her. She is of an age where she is overlooked by many, with an unassuming demeanour. She fiddles with her brooch, she weirdly stares ahead (could this elderly lady be a terrorist?). She starts walking down the aisle, announcing, as she passes, to passengers left and right, the age and cause of their individual death. There is a mixture of surprise, hilarity and shock amongst the recipients of her doom-mongering, and ultimate horror when she suggests a baby in the cabin will die by drowning at age 7, truly a jaw-dropping prophecy. Others will die of pancreatic cancer, old age, an accident at work, a car accident…..

Post flight the ramifications start manifest. Some of the passengers dismiss the batty old woman’s predictions, but others find that they are plagued by the thoughts of death, which in turn causes anxiety and a determination to control destiny. And then one person dies as predicted and the internet goes wild. Can anyone outrun their fate? Others rail against her predictions, some laugh, some develop anxiety….

This novel ponders how people and society respond to the notion of future – is it random, can it be predicted, is it pre-ordained? The author chooses several characters on the flight and examines their responses to the new information. Some enter a hamster wheel to avoid ‘certain death’, others simply dismiss the prophecy. Then, more deaths are announced. The focus switches to the woman in the aisle, whom we come to know as Cherry, and how fire is directed towards her, tracking her down and placing her in the cross-hairs of scrutiny. Hysteria and media involvement stir the pot as we discover more about Cherry’s lengthy backstory.

This is a well put together story which tackles the very complex notion of how a life can be impacted by the possible knowledge of manner and timing of death. How would you behave if you knew when you are going to die? What might you do to prevent the scenario or would you be accepting?

Buy Now

I enjoyed the concept of the storyline because it is really thought provoking but overall I found it a touch too long, populated by too many characters vying for attention, which made it hard to keep track. A memorable read, however.

Tina for the TripFiction Team

And on this link you can find Tina’s succinct summary for the Grazia Book Club

Join team TripFiction on Social Media:

Twitter (@TripFiction), Facebook (@TripFiction.Literarywanderlust), YouTube (TripFiction #Literarywanderlust), Instagram (@TripFiction) and Pinterest (@TripFiction) and BlueSky(tripfiction.bsky.social) and Threads (@tripfiction)

Subscribe to future blog posts