The Finite Nature of Life: A Guest Post by Liane Moriarty
Have you ever experienced something that made you see life in a completely different way? Here One Moment is bestselling author Liane Moriarty’s take on our fragile mortality that asks what we’d do with our lives if we knew when we’d die. Read on for Moriarty’s exclusive essay on the experience that sparked the idea of her brand-new book.
Hardcover
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$30.00
Here One Moment
Here One Moment
In Stock Online
Hardcover
$21.00
$30.00
From the author of Apples Never Fall and Nine Perfect Strangers comes a mesmerizing tale of life, love and our fragile mortality.
From the author of Apples Never Fall and Nine Perfect Strangers comes a mesmerizing tale of life, love and our fragile mortality.
I came up with the idea for Here One Moment during a long flight delay at Hobart Airport in Tasmania. All the passengers had boarded the plane when the pilot asked for our patience as there was an issue that needed to be resolved. I can’t remember now if it was a mechanical issue or a hold-up with paperwork, I just remember sighing because the flight was already running late. The upshot was that we were stuck on the tarmac, seatbelts buckled, waiting, waiting, waiting for an excruciatingly long time. I was travelling on my own and had no book to read (the horror) (never travel without a book) so I had no choice but to eavesdrop on the increasingly irate phone calls passengers made to their family, friends and colleagues as dinner reservations were cancelled, plans were changed and so on. One poor mother was telling her young daughter to ‘wake Daddy up’ as he would need to be in charge of dinner. The woman’s voice became panicky as it seemed the daughter could not wake her father. The more I listened, the more I became convinced he couldn’t be woken because he was dead. I was texting my husband about my fears, and he texted back, The poor man is just having a nap. Annoyingly, but also happily, he turned out to be correct, as the next thing I overheard was the wife berating her sleepy husband. However, it was too late for me: my thoughts had turned to death, specifically, my own death.
My preoccupation with my own mortality is perhaps not surprising considering the events of the three years preceding that flight. Firstly, my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer, then my beloved father died, we had a global pandemic where the whole world stared death in the face, and finally and most recently, I myself was diagnosed with breast cancer. My sister and I are both fine now. (She’s running marathons. I’m doing yoga and the occasional spin class.) However, in spite of my good health I had a new, seemingly permanent awareness of the finite nature of life. So, as I sat there that day, this cheerful thought popped into my head: Every person on this plane will one day die. But when? And how? I looked around at my fellow passengers and thought, Will that little girl live until she’s one hundred? Will that young man have his life cut short? What about that beautiful flight attendant? It occurred to me that somewhere in the far-off future the answers to all those questions would be available. I thought, What if that information was available NOW? What if someone walked down the aisle telling every passenger how and when we would die? And what if those predictions came true? When the flight finally took off and passengers applauded with relief, I knew I had a good opening scene, and so, Here One Moment, my tenth novel, was born.