Five: A Novel

Description

A national bestseller and New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, Five: A Novel by Ilona Bannister is a thought-provoking psychological thriller that challenges readers to confront difficult questions about morality, judgement and the value of human life.

Five strangers are waiting on a platform for a train to London. In just five minutes, the train will arrive, and one of them will die.

But who deserves to survive? And who will be left with only five minutes to live?

Among the five is a handsome young man struggling with a gambling addiction, an elderly woman who refuses help after falling, a mother dealing with her difficult child, and a successful but deeply troubled businessman.

None of them knows what is about to happen. None of them is entirely innocent of mistakes or questionable decisions. Yet each carries a personal history that may change how you see them.

As their stories unfold, readers are invited to look beyond first impressions and confront their own assumptions about these seemingly ordinary strangers. Their experiences reveal complicated realities involving motherhood, disability, addiction and the consequences of past choices.

Breaking the fourth wall, Five places readers in an unusual position, asking them to become judge, jury and executioner as they consider which character should live and which should die.

Blending psychological suspense with an exploration of human behaviour, Ilona Bannister delivers an unconventional thriller that examines how easily we judge others without knowing their stories.

Five lives. Five stories. Four survivors. One death.

If the choice were yours, who would you save?