The Anomaly

“The Anomaly” by Herve Le Tellier (translated from the French by Adriana Hunter) 400 pages

This is the weirdest book I have ever read…and I’ve read some doozies over the year. It won France’s Prix Goncourt in 2020 (a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year"). 

First, let’s talk about why I wanted to read it. From the back cover: “…an international phenomenon, the dizzying whip-smart novel blends crime, fantasy, sci-fi, and thriller as it plumbs the mysteries surrounding a Paris-New York flight.” I knew it could get a little weird because of the fantasy/sci-fi aspect and I was willing to accept that, but, honestly, I expected a more traditionally plotted novel. I had only a vague overarching idea of what was happening as I was reading. But I was curious as to what the fuss is all about, so I read Every. Single. Word.  All the way to a bunch of gobbled-gook that ended with

                                                                         e

                                                                         n

                                                                        d 

 

Don’t ask me what that was about. 

The novel is broken into two parts. The first part is about a large group of characters and their lives are told in flashbacks as they hurtle through the air from Paris to New York. I think. They hit God-awful turbulence that had me feeling queasy myself.  The air-traffic controllers along the way begin to show panic about the flight which only added to the uneasiness of the flight. The plane does land safely in New York. Trouble is, that same flight, with the same crew, and the same passengers landed at JFK in March. But now it’s June. 

I think the reason that it was noticed has something to do with the pilot, but I’m not really sure. The plane is diverted to a hanger where it and passengers and crew are held as the government tries to determine what the heck has happened. Can you hear the “Twilight Zone” theme playing in the background? 

It is determined that everything about this flight is identical. The passengers even have the exact same DNA, the exact same memories and the exact same physical. The second half of the book is about the passengers from the March flight meeting those who just arrived on the June flight. Government officials take to substituting the passenger’s last name with either March or June so they were easily identifiable. 

Unfortunately there is no viable conclusion to this work, and it sort of tapers off. I don’t even know how to rate this novel. Therefore, I’ll go to the middle of the rating system and give “The Anomaly” 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.