The Immortalists: Chapter 24 Summary & Analysis

The next morning, Thanksgiving, Daniel Googles Bruna Costello’s name and finds that she’s on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. The website gives her likely location in West Milton, Ohio and says she travels by RV. Daniel is bothered by the fact that Eddie didn’t just tell him the information. He wonders if Eddie thinks he’s bent on revenge—then he wonders if he is bent on revenge.

The family works on Thanksgiving dinner together throughout the afternoon, then everyone disperses before dinner. Daniel sits in the living room, researching the Romani. When he comes across an old Romani proverb, “our language is our strength,” he writes it down, alongside a Jewish proverb he remembers, “Thoughts have wings.” A year earlier, he explored Jewish theology, but he was disappointed when he found little on the topics of death and immortality. Jews, he noted, were more concerned with living than dying.

Ruby, who’s been working on a Sudoku puzzle, strikes up a conversation with Daniel. She tells him that that she doesn’t want to perform forever: she wants to go to college, become a doctor, and be a “real person.” Daniel says Klara didn’t want to be a real person, but he immediately backtracks. He says that Klara was special, but that doesn’t mean that Ruby has to be like her. Ruby says dully that everyone tells her that, and she leaves to take a walk in the snow outside.