All of a sudden one day every person in the world receives a box with a string in it. The string represents the length of an individual’s life. After that, when someone turns 22 her or his box arrives.
If you had a choice to know when you were going to die, would you want to know? What, if anything, would you do differently? Would you treat people differently if you knew their end date? Should government make rules based on known life expectancies?
The Measure (William Morrow, 2022) a novel by Nikki Erlick explores these questions in a unique manner. She weaves together the lives of eight people who handle their strings in various ways.
Often when there are so many main characters it can be hard to keep them straight. Not so with The Measure. Like any book, some people you are going to relate to more or care about more, but in this case they all had interesting experiences.
The book was intriguing, fast moving and captivating.
While a work of fiction, it makes you think. The whole “what if” thing. Before reading the book I would have said I might want to know my end date. Today, I don’t want to know.
I listened to this book and it sparked lots of interesting discussion amongst friends/family. So thought provoking!!!
What an interesting concept. Going in Libby.
We read this for our book club and the discussion was awesome and wide ranging. Also there were unique thoughts about it based on age.
I’m putting it on my wish list! Sounds interesting.
Wow.. can’t wait to read it!
I think this is one of those books that everyone should read. It was given to me when another friend said she had already read it. I would never have found it and that would have been a huge loss.
This book has changed the way I look at life. After describing it to my husband he asked me, “What would you do if you discovered you had a short string?” When I shared my answer he poignantly replied, “Then why are you doing that now?” It has fundamentally changed me, to my core.
I think this is truly a ‘must read’. Thank you, Kae, for letting even more people know about it. Wow.
This sounds interesting. I will have to read it.