The Anomaly is much different from what I usually read, but I thought it was fascinating. The premise, described below better than I could, is that two plane-loads of passengers, landing in New York three months apart from one another, are identical. The author focuses on several of those passengers from both the March flight and the June flight, as they try to comprehend who they are and what may have happened to them.
The book left me with more questions than answers, but I didn't feel compelled to puzzle out what had really happen and what it all meant. Marianne and Marilyn reported that their book club felt much the way I had: I'm not sure what it meant, but I am glad I read it.
Maybe you will want to see what you think, too, and can give me some answers!
A New York Times bestseller and a "Best Thriller of the Year"
Now an international phenomenon, this dizzying, whip-smart novel blends crime, fantasy, sci-fi, and thriller as it plumbs the mysteries surrounding a Paris-New York flight.
Who would we be if we had made different choices? Told that secret, left that relationship, written that book? We all wonder—the passengers of Air France 006 will find out.
In their own way, they were all living double lives when they boarded the plane:
Blake, a respectable family man who works as a contract killer.
Slimboy, a Nigerian pop star who uses his womanizing image to hide that he’s gay.
Joanna, a Black American lawyer pressured to play the good old boys’ game to succeed with her Big Pharma client.
Victor Miesel, a critically acclaimed yet largely obscure writer suddenly on the precipice of global fame.
About to start their descent to JFK, they hit a shockingly violent patch of turbulence, emerging on the other side to a reality both perfectly familiar and utterly strange. As it charts the fallout of this logic-defying event, The Anomaly takes us on a journey from Lagos and Mumbai to the White House and a top-secret hangar.
In Hervé Le Tellier’s ambitious work, high literature follows the lead of a bingeable Netflix series, drawing on the best of genre fiction from “chick lit” to mystery, while also playfully critiquing their hallmarks. An ingenious, timely variation on the doppelgänger theme, it taps into the parts of ourselves that elude us most.
Comments