Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice.
It seems like any other day. You wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and head out.
But today, when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. This box holds your fate inside: the answer to the exact number of years you will live.
From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to what they promise?
As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they’ll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge?
The Measure charts the dawn of this new world through an unforgettable cast of characters whose decisions and fates interweave with one another: best friends whose dreams are forever entwined, pen pals finding refuge in the unknown, a couple who thought they didn’t have to rush, a doctor who cannot save himself, and a politician whose box becomes the powder keg that ultimately changes everything.
“It’s not the length of life, but the depth of life.”
I absolutely loved this one. The Measure is a MPV speculative fiction following the lives of eight strangers. On a random day in March, all adults across the world receive a mysterious wooden box containing a single piece of string. Eventually we learn that the lengths of these strings correspond to the length of your life. What follows next is the impact of knowing, down to the month, exactly how many years you’ll have on earth. Would you open your box or hide it away in a closet? How would you cope with a short string? What if yours is long and your partners is short? Would society treat you differently depending on the length of your string? The world?
The book explores all of these questions through the perspective of eight different characters. Each one is wrestling with the impact of the strings on their lives and their loved ones across a variety of circumstances. The mystery of how and why the boxes appear is never explored but the story is heartbreaking, hopeful, and forces us to question our own lives. This is the perfect choice for a book club and I’d love to know what you think as well.
💭 Would you open your box?
