The Life Impossible
A Novel
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4.2 • 899 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The New York Times Bestseller
“An odyssey of action and awe.” —The New York Times
“A wry and tender love-letter to the best of being human.” —Benedict Cumberbatch
The remarkable next novel from Matt Haig, the author of #1 New York Times bestseller The Midnight Library, with more than nine million copies sold worldwide
“What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don’t understand yet…”
When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.
Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.
Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This enchanting tale of self-discovery proves it’s never too late for a new beginning or a touch of magic in our lives. After unexpectedly inheriting a run-down house in Ibiza from a long-lost friend, retired math teacher Grace Winters impulsively leaves her quiet life in England behind, arriving on the sun-drenched Mediterranean shores without a real plan. As she explores the island’s rugged landscapes and dives into its enigmatic seagrass meadows, Grace encounters a mysterious blue light. Known to locals as La Presencia, the light changes Grace in ways she never imagined were possible. Suddenly gifted with extraordinary abilities, Grace finds herself not only healing from the grief of her past but also standing up to protect the island from an unscrupulous developer. Author Matt Haig’s bewitching prose and vivid descriptions bring Ibiza’s magic to life, making The Life Impossible a potent dose of wonder and hope that reminds us to embrace new adventures and find our purpose.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Haig's magnificent latest (after The Midnight Library), a retired math teacher unexpectedly inherits property in Ibiza and escapes her static life in Lincolnshire, England. Upon hearing the news, widowed Grace Winters takes up residence in the ramshackle house left to her by her old friend Christina. In a note, Christina suggests Grace find a man called Alberto to show her the miraculous seagrass meadow beneath the Mediterranean. Grace, who doesn't know how Christina died, determines to follow her late friend's advice but is unable to appreciate the island's scenery due to her guilt over her 11-year-old son's death in a bicycle accident 30 years earlier. Her mood changes, though, when Alberto takes her scuba diving and she's touched underwater by a shape-shifting blue light, which Alberto calls La Presencia and claims is a portal to another planet. Her encounter with the light also gives her mind-reading and telekinetic powers, which she first tries out in quotidian situations, often to humorous effect, such as when she makes an obnoxious restaurant patron stab himself with a fork. Soon, though, she applies her newfound abilities to a higher purpose, joining a battle to save the island from an unscrupulous developer. Haig's spellbinding descriptions of the portal and its powers lend themselves to the convincing conceit that Grace, thanks to her encounter with La Presencia, is not only able to change her life but to make a difference in her new community. In Haig's sure hands, magic comes to breathtaking life.
Customer Reviews
A nice escape.
It is a good book. It is pleasant, easy to read, and a nice escape from every day life.
Slow and boring
Slow and boring and oh, so dumb. I’m embarrassed to have read it and for the author to have written it.
What an imaginative romp!
And at some point, we will come to see what is true, won't we? Magic, aliens, all things that we do not get understand but that was true about science in the past, it's true now, and it will always be true. Matt Haig brings these characters to life, and I can only Marvel out how his mind works, as he tries to describe to us what is happening within the indomitable Grace.