The Possibilities
A Novel
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A new mother ventures into parallel worlds to find her missing child in this “wildly inventive” (San Francisco Chronicle) novel that turns the joys and anxieties of parenthood into an epic quest, “a powerful page-turner with deep wisdom” (People).
“An original take on motherhood, The Possibilities taps into those primal feelings every nurturer feels—and fears.”—Good Morning America
A SHE READS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • FINALIST FOR THE WORLD FANTASY AWARD
What if the life you didn’t live was as real as the one you did?
Hannah is having a bad day. A bad month. A bad year? That feels terrible to admit, since her son Jack was born just eight months ago and she loves him more than anything. But ever since his harrowing birth, she can’t shake the feeling that it could have gone the other way. That her baby might not have made it. Terrifying visions of the different paths her life could have taken begin to disrupt her cozy, claustrophobic days with Jack, destabilizing her marriage and making her husband concerned for her mental health. Are the strange things Hannah is seeing just new-mom anxiety, or is something truly weird and sinister afoot? What if Hannah really did unlock a dark force during childbirth?
When Hannah’s worst nightmare comes true and Jack disappears from his crib, she must tap into an extraordinary ability she never knew she had in order to save him: She must enter different versions of her life while holding on to what is most important to her in this one to bring her child back home.
From the intimate joys of parenthood to the cosmic awe of the multiverse, The Possibilities is an ingenious and wildly suspenseful novel that stares down into the dizzying depths of maternal love, vulnerability, and strength.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Goldstein-Love's engaging sophomore novel (after The Passion of Tasha Darsky) blends an intimate view of new motherhood with an ingenious story of a multiverse. After suspense writer Hannah Bennett delivers her son, Jack, 10 minutes pass before his first breath. In that time, she sees another outcome, in which he turns blue and dies. Eight months later, with Jack breathing normally, Hannah is diagnosed with adjustment disorder and her husband declares he's leaving her. Then she leaves Jack unattended for a moment while outside the house, during which she's faced with two realities simultaneously—her life as she knows it, and the "Jackless" alternative she's always feared. That night, Jack disappears from his crib, setting Hannah on a race against the clock to find him before he's erased forever. When she follows up with the police who responded to her call about Jack's disappearance, however, they have no memory of the case or her child. The author plumbs the depths of her protagonist's conflicted emotions, showing how Hannah is split between a desire to preserve her sense of self before Jack and the pull to give herself over to her new identity as a mother. The result is a memorable story about the limits of a parent's ability to protect their child from harm.
