¡Saludos my friends! And welcome back to another ripping instalment of Em’s book club! (cue faint fanfare) This month, we dive into the mysterious and magical waters of Matt Haig’s latest novel The Life Impossible.

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Set on the beautiful island of Ibiza, retired Maths teacher and social recluse Grace Winters has left her English home behind to accept an unexpected gift left to her by Christina, a music teacher she met decades ago who shortly left the country to pursue the life she wanted.

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Bequeathed an old, battered car and ‘the ugliest house in Ibiza’ (Grace’s description, not mine), Grace takes Christina’s advice to explore the island and enjoy its lively culture and natural beauty, but with her own additional motive of finding out what really happened to Christina. Did she go off the grid to escape a life-threatening danger? Or was the real culprit far closer than she realised?

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Enter the scene, Alberto Ribas. A once respected marine biologist now turned diving instructor and local weirdo (although a few characters give him a run for his money), Alberto is, at first, the most obvious suspect behind Christina’s disappearance and Grace is warned to stay away from him. However, Grace can’t ignore the mysterious references Alberto makes regarding Christina’s current whereabouts and baffling occurrences within Christina’s old home such as a glowing jar of seagrass water that manages to refill of its own accord (if only, IRL).

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She takes Alberto up on his offer to dive at midnight and what follows is a plot of intrigue, mysticism and sci-fi that leads to a massive personal evolution from average human being to, well, Jedi.

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Most of us just try to avoid sunburn and food poisoning on holidays so not the worst outcome in my opinion.

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As Grace comes to terms with a new unexplainable power, there is a darker, unseen force that will do anything to harness it.

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The Life Impossible is both a wild, otherworldly adventure and poignant, emotionally stirring tale about human connection; to our past selves, to people we’ve loved and lost and those we see ourselves in. Grace is, from her perspective, an unlikely hero, being at an advanced age and still moored in grief from the tragic loss of her young son and recently departed husband. But her natural empathy, perceptiveness and wit (which lends a welcome bite of humour through the novel) certainly make her an ideal candidate for a modern-day Obi-Wan (I’ll stop with the Star Wars references).  

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Matt Haig has delivered an exceptional novel of magical realism that both delights, educates and transports you to another world while keeping a sincere message at its heart. For this particular reviewer, he also achieves the impossible by making Maths not only understandable, but interesting (if 12-year-old me could read this now…).

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Anyone keen to get their hands on The Life Impossible for Matt Haig’s signature British sense of humour alone will enjoy these snippets:

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And then I saw a jarringly out of place book on clairvoyancy called The Ultimate Guide to Psychic Power: Volume 8. The title caused me to release a little awkward laugh. Music teachers, I thought to myself. [pages 39-40]

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He exuded suppressed emotion. He was a clenched fist of a man. [page 67]

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There was a long, slow inhale. ‘A power.’ An exhale. Another inhale. It was like she had just invented breathing and was showing off about it. [page 76]

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If you want to stay a normal human being, you should leave right now. Because this won’t be a normal experience.
I scowled. ‘It was a little bloody vague. It sounded like generic marketing. You should have been specific.’ [pages 160-161]

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In my life I have only twice had the urge to slap someone’s face. Both times it was Alberto Ribas’s. [page 164]

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He looked infuriated. He had the scowl our old Pomeranian, Bernard, used to give every time we clipped him back on the lead. [page 169]

 

 

SIMILAR TITLES

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The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

The life-changing reader-favourite, from the acclaimed author of How To Stop Time, Reasons to Stay Alive and The Comfort Book. Nora’s life has been going from bad to worse. Then at the stroke of midnight on her last day on earth she finds herself transported to a library.

 

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

How many lifetimes does it take to learn how to live? Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old history teacher, but he’s been alive for centuries.

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The Humans by Matt Haig

‘Matt Haig is a supreme talent and a writer to cherish, and The Humans is undoubtedly his magnum opus’ Guardian

There’s no place like home… After an ‘incident’ one wet Friday night where he is found walking naked through the streets of Cambridge, Professor Andrew Martin is not feeling quite himself.

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In Ascension by Martin MacInnes

If Richard Powers had written Arrival, an astonishing novel that is set to break out Martin MacInnes as one of the most important literary voices of his generation

 

The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber

Author of the bestselling The Crimson Petal and the White with an all-out masterpiece about love and the search for meaning in an unfathomable universe. ‘I am with you always, even unto the end of the world...’ Peter Leigh is a missionary called to go on the journey of a lifetime. Leaving behind his beloved wife, Bea, Peter sets out on a quest to take the word of God to the farthest corners of the galaxy.

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All the Galaxies by Philip Miller

The Lovely Bones meets Margaret Atwood in this extraordinary, deeply moving, supernatural story of a young man’s journey to find his mother. ‘Unsettling and uncommon and darkly atmospheric, with disarming flashes of hope and beauty.’ Helen Sedgwick, author of The Comet Seekers