I wish I could recall where I first heard about this book and from whom, as I would give them a hearty thank you. This book is in the time-bending genre, but in a different way than others read recently.
We start by meeting a series of characters who share one thing: they were all on an Air France flight from Paris to New York in March 2021 that passed through a violent storm off the East coast before landing safely at JFK. There’s the restauranteur/contract killer, travelling to complete a job in New York; the author/translator, on his way to accept a literary prize; the architect and his new girlfriend, the film editor, on their way to their first vacation; the small family of a soldier, heading home from a whirlwind Paris trip; and the young up-and-coming Nigerian singer/songwriter. There are other characters, too, but none as interesting as these passengers.
There’s almost no way to describe this book without giving away the very clever premise. Suffice to say, the people on this mysterious flight are the doppelgängers of those on an identical flight some three months earlier. The book explores this unusual situation at both the personal and individual level and the larger philosophical and cosmic level. Which of the two people is the “real” one and which is the copy? How can two identical people share a life?
Alongside how did this happen is the question of why did this happen, which brings together the other characters in the story – scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, and religious scholars, all wrestling with that why and what it might mean. These greatest minds determine the most reasonable (!) explanation: our world is a simulation governed by a higher power, and the anomaly is a test by that creator of our problem-solving abilities. But the scientists have the same problem seen in similar stories – there is no way to prove the simulation. And that still does not solve the problem of why.
The doppelgänger trope is not new (see The Double by both Dostoyevsky and Saramago, and their film adaptations), but Le Tellier takes it to a whole new level by duplicating several hundred people (as well as the airplane and all its contents) and shining a light on them all at once. The complexities are astounding on many levels.
I enjoyed this book for the writing and the characters, but also the page-turning suspense and gasp-inducing revelations. There are surprises aplenty, and triumphs and tragedies throughout.
Fate: I’m not likely to read this again, at least not in the near future, so will share it with another reader.
1 – a murder
2 – about time
21 – a translation
25 – new author to me
34 – prize winner (Prix Goncourt 2020)
rclr 
Leave a comment