The Anomaly
An Air France flight from Paris to New York hits violent turbulence in March 2021 and lands safely. Three months later, the same plane lands again, carrying the same 243 passengers and crew, with the same flight number, and no idea what has happened to them. The U.S. government convenes mathematicians, philosophers, and the FBI to determine what to do with two versions of every person on the manifest. Le Tellier rotates through a thriller writer, a Nigerian musician, a child, a contract killer, and a math professor, asking what each duplicate owes their original, and what the duplication says about the world that produced it.
Where The Anomaly keeps showing up
One of our editors' lists features this novel.
What you might want to know about The Anomaly
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A 2021 Air France flight lands twice, three months apart, with the same passengers and crew, in the Prix Goncourt winning sci-fi thriller from a French literary insider.
The Anomaly was written by Herve Le Tellier and originally published in French in 2020. The English translation by Adriana Hunter was released in 2021. Le Tellier won the 2020 Prix Goncourt for the novel.
The Anomaly is structured as multiple character vignettes that gradually converge. Most readers find the first 100 pages slower before the hook lands. The novel is around 400 pages.
The Anomaly is 336 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Anomaly takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
The Anomaly is a standalone novel by Hervé Le Tellier, not part of a series.
The Anomaly is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.