On a routine flight from Hobart to Sydney, people are cranky due to a delay. Once the plane is in the air, however, one woman stands and begins to speak to passengers one by one. Cause of death, age of death. One by one, she hands out predictions, regardless of how people react. The flight is a disaster, unsettling for all, but no one really believes… until the first person dies.

This was a fascinating book. It’s told from the point of view of several passengers on the plane, as well as that of the woman who gives out the predictions, and takes place over almost a year of time. It’s not really a story of prediction or psychics, but a story of the way people react to life and circumstances, and how things come together to make up the way we behave when confronted with a definitive timeline. It also goes into quite a lot of detail about various philosophies of behavior, from people who believe that every step you take is pre-determined, to those who believe the opposite extreme. It’s a set of slice-of-life stories, slotted into the longer story of the “death lady” from the plane, as she’s come to be known. It’s about interconnectivity, and community, and taking stock of the important things in each of our worlds.

I really enjoyed it. There’s no real answer about whether or not these predictions are “true” or if the deaths that occur in their wake are coincidences; if steps taken in the face of predictions keep them from happening, or if they never would have happened at all. It’s left ambiguous, because that’s not the point. The point is how people chose to behave in the face of what may or may not be coming. And I really liked that.

Performance: The audio was read by two narrators, Geraldine Hakewill and Caroline Lee. I don’t know which was which, and enjoyed one more than the other, but liked both fairly well. No complaints, and I love listening to Moriarty’s stories in general. They work well in audio format.