The Anomaly

September 25, 2025 /

The Anomaly ~ Hervé Le Tellier, translated from French by Adriana Hunter

In March of 2021, an Air France flight from Paris to New York hits extreme turbulence. The plane is damaged but lands safely. In June of 2021, an exact duplicate flight (both the plane and the passengers) attempts to land at JFK. Alarms go off when air traffic control realizes something very strange is going on, and brings in the US Department of Defense.

The Anomaly follows the passengers and crew, both before the second plane lands and after. We hear from both the versions who land in March, and those who land in June. We see their lives and how they are affected by this anomaly, where they have ‘doubles’, and scientists, religious leaders, and philosophers are brought in to try to figure out what this means, what the repercussions are, and what the heck happened.

I loved this book. It was so masterfully told, a gripping tale, beautifully written. Highly recommended.

12 Comments

  • Jenny

    September 25, 2025 at 6:00 am

    I loved this book too!!!! What did you think of the end? I thought it was perfect (although I did have to google it to see what other people thought before I made up my mind). Glad you liked this one!

    • J

      September 25, 2025 at 6:04 am

      I agree, the end was perfect, though perhaps a bit disquieting! Perfect sci-fi ending. Likely I read this based on your rec, so thank you!

  • Allison McCaskill

    September 25, 2025 at 6:58 am

    I read this in 2023 and reviewed it in my book review round-up in January 2024 and said this:
    “Any book that deals with time travel or parallel realities, I will snap up first and ask questions later. Some of them are more plot based, trying to describe how the actual science might work and going from there. Some are much more philosophical and literary, investigating the existential implications, (as Cadwell Turnbull writes in No Gods, No Monsters, “If any old universe can exist, then what is the value of this one?”) This is the latter type, which sometimes I find tedious, but here it really works. There is a conversation about what makes a person – the qualities they are born with, or the way they are shaped by the events in their life? And then the bureaucracy of a place – how does it deal with something completely inexplicable by logic or science? This plays out through the eyes of several very different characters, and it was fascinating and melancholy and lovely.”
    I’m not sure I remember the ending correctly though! I’ll have to see if I can look it up.

    • J

      September 25, 2025 at 10:39 am

      I’ve never understood that philosophy, that our universe/planet/god has to be singular to have meaning. Certainly I am not the only human in existance, and still, I have meaning. And if there were two (or 12) of me, I don’t think that meaning would be diminished. But I suppose one could have an entire philisophical debate about that.

      About the ending, I did not see it coming.