Breakaway Books

Authored by Matt Haig; Published September 2024; Science Fiction

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️

If you are feeling disenchanted by life, run down bu daily inconveniences and tragedy, I must recommend The Life Impossible to you. It’s a bighearted novel about experiencing all the beauties of life, big and small, fully. 

In The Life Impossible, retiree Grace travels from her home in England to Ibiza, Spain, after receiving a surprise vacation home via inheritance from an old, forgotten friend, Christina. Grace quickly discovers that Christina’s sudden death may not be what it seems and encounters La Presencia, a supposed alien life form living underwater. Gifted with new powers of telepathy and telekinesis, Grace feels called to protect the animals and environment of the island from incoming development efforts sure to ruin the ecosystem. While this is an adequate description of the plot, it in no way captures what makes the novel so charming.

Before her inheritance, Grace is struggling with antipathy with life after years of grief from the untimely death of her son. She doesn’t remember the last time she has experienced real joy or pleasure—and who among us hasn’t gotten stuck in a rut like this? Who hasn’t felt like a little bit of the color has leeched out of life? It is reviving to read about Grace’s recovery, how La Presencia enables her to discover the beauty and joy of everyday experiences once more and open herself up to living again. Yes, the book has a strong environmentalist message, but it seems so much more joyful, less serious, than other novels of the same genre. 

I’m not sure there is a mean bone in the book’s body, so to speak, as even the villain gains Grace’s empathy. Christina’s erstwhile companion, Alberto, whom Grace initially finds completely repellent is transformed into a beloved friend, all because Grace takes the time to try to understand him and ask him to open up. The novel is dotted with humor, as could be expected from a slightly grumpy 70-something narrator. It made me laugh but it also made me think: What would it take for me to be this enamored with life again? How could I be enchanted like this?

The Life Impossible is an antidote to the cynicism of modern life. We could all use it.