Are You Sure You Want to Know?: A Novel's Answer to Life's Largest Question

by Pamela Jekel

Would knowing how long you are going to live be a blessing or a burden?
Ava Clayton is a pragmatic woman, fond of her lists. She is a retired English professor, a mildly intrusive mother to two grown children and a mouthy wife to a beloved husband of fifty years. Known for her bracingly direct remarks, she is nonetheless speechless when her dead mother sits on the side of her bed one night and tells her when she is going to die—but not how. Ava now feels she has a stamped expiration date on her forehead. She must convince her family that, unique in all humanity, she knows the year of her death. Her daughter believes her; her husband is skeptical. Her best friend supports her, other friends worry she has lost it at last. She sees doctors, her psychologist, a pastor, and a spiritualist to help her deal with her sense of being cheated. Should she be quietly heroic or lead a parade of possibilities, flags flying? Her mother lived to be nearly ninety, and despite Ava’s avid efforts to hold back the clock with Botox and fillers, she will die early…but of what? Through her allotted years of births and deaths and bucket lists, a séance, a mule trip to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and her search for the perfect chocolate cake, Ava makes an intimate and imperfect journey through growth, grief, and awful grace.

312 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 1, 2023