For a novel about old people and dying, Grace Flahive's sparkling debut, Palm Meridian, couldn't be more full of life. Welcome to the Palm Meridian Retirement Community, where "the residents... [are] retired only in name." By 8 a.m., "nothing--no force of nature, no act of God--could stop these elderly women from attacking their days with a kind of energy that would make a working person quake." It's 2067, "the second half of the twenty-first century and everything was flavoured with apocalypse." Orlando, the nearest city, "was left with the wreckage of a sprawling Disney empire, the company long gone bust." The country--with the rest of the world--is not well: a third of the United States is without a reliable power grid. "California was on fire more often than it wasn't. There was a generally held belief in Florida that the whole of Orlando could explode in a giant fireball, and Washington wouldn't know or care for at least a week." Remarkably, the Palm Meridian is both haven and home for some 200 "sept- and oct- and nonagenarians, plus a handful of centenarians whose rogue, robust health made everyone else look bad."

As Flahive's not-quite dystopic fiction opens, Palm Meridian's entire community is readying for a major party that evening: to celebrate the last night of resident Hannah Cardin's 77 years. Three months ago, Hannah received her terminal diagnosis: "The onset would be gradual.... But deterioration would be quick," her young doctor warned. "The suffering would be great, the pain likely unbearable." At least she has choices. "If life would not be life, then she wouldn't live it. She'd go out with a bang." And so tomorrow morning at 9 a.m., Hannah will check into the Palliative Care Ward of Florida Grove Hospital--and end her life.

Until then, she has so much to do, starting with her morning coffee at the community bar, run by beloved Nate. She can expect plenty of supportive help to prepare for the upcoming shindig from her dear friends who have all agreed to put on brave faces for today: former prize-winning journalist Christine, whose dramatic affairs haven't abated with age; the two Eileens--small and tall and married to each other--who can still rock the "hike-lite" outdoor-life fashion, a constant sartorial tribute to their meeting a half-century ago at a Washington bird sanctuary; and Esme, Hannah's dearest friend (and first love), who remained "the spitting image of her twenty-year-old self." By 10 a.m., even Luke--Hannah's oldest friend from age seven and with whom she built a business empire--has arrived, having ventured south from Montreal. This close coterie has supported her through her diagnosis and helped her send out invitations, organize RSVPs, and ensure that every last party detail will be perfect. The only uncertainty is Sophie, the love of her life, whom Hannah hasn't seen since their breakup 43 years ago. Will she, can she, arrive in time?

While Flahive counts down the hours to tomorrow, she intertwines broad glimpses of Hannah's life from conception (in Montreal in 1990) through childhood (often cold but warmly, parentally beloved), the first independence of college and self-discoveries, company building and globally expanding with Luke, falling madly in love, insurmountable losses, her eventual move to Florida 10 years ago, and the wondrous community she's created since. Her fateful final 25 hours might have a few tears, but most of it is filled with frenetic joy--even a hushed (because it's in the library, of course!) wedding, efficiently, perfectly finished and enjoyed in exactly 30 minutes. Love, at any age, carries on... and on and on.

By moving back and forth in time, smoothly connecting then and now, Canada-born, London-transplanted book marketer Flahive creates a gentle, rhythmic pace not unlike everyday life. She's a delightfully clever writer, effortlessly, impressively balancing poignant emotions ("I hope, for a while, I kept you warm"), serious environmental warnings (the "tumultuous planet"), dramatic flair ("like time-travelling from a medieval castle into a gay IKEA"); sly playfulness ("Please stand, if you're able"); and dark humor ("they don't let you take perishable food where I'm going"). Despite a global future with all manner of worsening challenges, Flahive deftly inserts aspirational goals for senior citizens-to-be. Acts of kindness and caring--and fun!--are timeless at any age.

Hannah may be the star of the evening, but her friends are undeniably, delightfully memorable throughout, with fully realized backstories--and a few utterly ready for their own potential close-ups. Perhaps readers' last-page wish for more will inspire companion titles. Endings, indeed, are inevitable, but Flahive vividly demonstrates that living loudly, vivaciously, gloriously, to the very last minute is an essential life lesson to embrace. --Terry Hong

Grace Flahive (photo: Robin Silas Christian)

Grace Flahive has years of experience as a publishing industry insider, and now she's about to try the writerly side with the debut of Palm Meridian (Avid Reader/Simon & Schuster, June 10, 2025), a rollicking novel about death. The year is 2067, and 77-year-old Hannah is celebrating the last night of her life with just about all her favorite people in world--she has high hopes that one special someone she hasn't seen in over 40 years will arrive in time. Flahive was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. She studied English Literature at McGill University in Montreal before moving to London in 2014.

From your author photo, I'm going to guess you're still quite young. How did you decide to write a first novel about "sept- and oct- and nonagenarians, plus a handful of centenarians"?

The truth of it is that this is not the first novel I've written--it's the sixth! I've got drawers and drawers worth of unpublished, lesser books (including the likes of Paramore fan fiction from 2008, a Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants-style friendship saga, etc.) But Palm Meridian is the writing I am most proud of, and I'm SO thrilled it's my debut!

I never set out to write about sept- and oct- and nonagenarians, but it came about because of a kind of thought experiment I wanted to try. I wanted to write a love story, and to be able to have the kind of emotional payoff of a story like The Notebook, seeing both ends of a long life. I don't feel capable of writing historical fiction, so instead of casting backwards from our present day, I cast into the future, and ended up writing one vision of millennial retirement.

Canada is in your soul, but why Florida?

Yes, it's a funny mix of places--I'm a Canadian, based in the U.K., writing Florida! Palm Meridian is set near Orlando in 2067. I first set foot in Florida exactly 70 years prior to this, in 1997, as a five-year-old on a family vacation. We left behind snowy Toronto and landed in this humid, almost otherworldly place--swamps, kitschy pink motels, and place names like Briny Breezes and Coconut Grove. Florida made an impression on me from the very beginning, and in my subsequent travels there; I always knew I'd set a story there. While the setting is anchored somewhat in reality, so much of the task of writing this book was all the conjecture and predictions about what the world might look like then, so imagination stepped in where research came up short.

You wrote your thesis on "inventive digital marketing opportunities for authors," then worked in publishing as a digital marketer. How have those experiences come into play with your book's upcoming publication?

It's been so much fun already. After my English lit undergrad, I moved to London and studied publishing, and my thesis was one of my favorite projects I've worked on--I got to really dig into creativity and inventiveness in book promotion, including, among other things, author Nikesh Shukla's launching of a piece of meat into space!

I then worked for eight years in book marketing, while writing my own fiction along the side. All day I was having fun promoting books (starting with writing quizzes and listicles) and I couldn't help but look forward to the day when I could turn that attention and energy to my own books. I'm very excited to launch Palm Meridian into the world in lots of fun ways--watch this space!

After experiencing this roller-coaster of deepest sorrow and utter joy, what reactions are you hoping for from readers?

TEARS! I'll accept nothing short of tears (kidding, but hearing that it's made people cry makes me feel I've done a writer's job of moving a reader). I want people to finish my book and have that kind of feeling when you watch a really emotional movie, or leave a really engrossing concert, and you feel slightly more alive than when you walked in. If I can do that, I'll be thrilled.

Your phenomenal cast--are any of them real-life inspired? Which character most resembles you?

I had so much fun writing my main cast! Each of them came quite organically. I wanted to capture that sort of rowdy, hilarious friend group that I think a lot of queer people will recognize from their own--a group of people with potentially very different interests and personalities, but who all love one another to death (in this case, literally).

I think my protagonists are always a fictional version of me, or a hodgepodge of my interests (though I studied English and Hannah is an engineer and scientist, so I can't claim that brain). I drew on big, bright personalities and senses of humor I've come across in my own friends and circles throughout my life. I wanted some things that would make queer people laugh (like a married lesbian couple sharing the same name), and I wanted people to have come from different backgrounds and life experiences. I've had the most positive feedback so far about Esme--I think because she is so bold and full of life!

That begs the question… might you consider writing companion titles?

When I was writing Palm Meridian, I enjoyed casually imagining what might be called the "Palm Meridian Cinematic Universe"--all those other lives, and loves, that expand out from Hannah, and that aren't explored in as much detail in the book. I would definitely be open to exploring another strand of it in the future. Or, something carrying on from Luke's suggestion in the book that there could be a Palm Meridian in every state. It could be a cool thing to think about--a sister resort in another location, stateside or elsewhere in the world!

So, not to be further morbid, but did writing about death make you think about your own?

Absolutely. I started writing Palm Meridian when I was 29, so certainly not time to start planning retirement. But I have always been interested in death, as it informs our everyday life. I did a philosophy minor in university, and I've always been fascinated by the fact that we exist at all! What's going on?! Writing a book about someone confronting death was a way of exploring that--the absurdity of life! And even though it's absurd, and often extremely difficult, it's joyful and beautiful, too. If I'm ever confronted with my mortality in as direct a way as Hannah, I think I'll want to party with all my friends, too. --Terry Hong