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.

The Life Impossible was my book group’s selection this month, which suited me just fine — since I bought a copy when it first came out and hadn’t quite gotten around to reading it yet! I’ve loved several of Matt Haig’s books, especially The Midnight Library and How to Stop Time, so I felt perfectly primed to love this one too.

However, I can’t quite say that The Life Impossible worked for me as well as the author’s other books, and it’s a bit hard to say just why.

The Life Impossible is the story of Grace Winters, a 72-year-old widow who lives a quiet, isolated life in her small bungalow in England, still grieving and guilt-stricken over the death of her young son forty years earlier. Her story unfolds in response to a letter from a former student who remembers her kindness, and in a dark phase of his life, reaches out to connect with someone who’d once seemed to care. In response, she writes back to him and sends him a manuscript — her tale of what happened to her at a time when she thought life had nothing left to offer her.

The point of life is life. All life. We need to look after each other. And when it feels like we are truly, deeply alone, that is the moment when we most need to do something in order to remember how we connect.

Grace’s life changes when she’s notified that a former colleague has left her a house in Ibiza. Grace is shocked. She remembers Christina well — a teacher whom she invited home for Christmas many years earlier and offered support to when she most needed it — but after Christina moved away, they hadn’t kept in touch. And yet, apparently Grace’s kindness stuck with Christina. Grace hasn’t been able to truly feel happiness — or really, anything at all — for many years, but lacking a reason not to go to Ibiza, decides to see if maybe a change of scenery might be a good idea.

Once there, the mystery of why Christina chose to leave the house to Grace deepens. The house itself is shabby and run down. Upon arrival, Grace learns that Christina’s death is considered suspicious by local authorities, that Christina was very involved in protesting a major hotel development that would destroy natural resources, and that she often set up a stall in the hippie market telling people’s fortunes. Grace is skeptical, especially after finding a book on Christina’s shelves about ESP, but she’s curious enough to follow Christina’s clues and seek out a strange man named Alberto who promises that she’ll soon have the answers she needs.

You see, if you want to visit a new world, you don’t need a spacecraft. All you need to do is change your mind.

What follows is a tale of wonder, as Grace encounters something from beyond this world that opens her mind in new and unexpected ways. In contrast to her old life, where she felt nothing, she begins to feel everything, finding joy in the simplest of experiences and finding connection with everyone she meets. Grace realizes that she’s been given these gifts not just for her own sake, but to continue Christina’s mission, and sets out to finish the dangerous task of protecting Ibiza from the greedy, uncaring people who’d destroy it for their own gain.

The writing in The Life Impossible is often dreamy, as Grace gives voice to the strange and unexpected sensations and visions she experiences, and ruminates on the meaning of her own life, human life in general, loss and grief, and what being connected really means. What she conveys is odd, but the writing brings us into Grace’s world and lets us see through her eyes. We’re with Grace as things beyond her belief happen, and we see how her perception of the world is dramatically shifted in ways she could never have anticipated.

People say that love is rare. I am not so sure. What is rare is something even more desirable. Understanding. There is no point in being loved if you are not understood. They are simply loving an idea of you they have in their mind. They are in love with love. They are in love with their loving. To be understood. And not only that, but to be understood and appreciated once understood. That is what matters.

Grace herself is a lovely character, as are the various people she encounters on Ibiza. It’s inspiring to read about a woman of her age and stage of life finding new hope and engagement, after so many years believing that her life was essentially over and she was just waiting for the end.

And yet… I felt oddly unaffected through major sections of the books that should have been touching. Perhaps it’s the meandering storytelling style. This is a thoughtful, reflective book, and while there are scenes and incidents that have hints of excitement or action, much of the book is devoted to exploring Grace’s inner life. It’s often interesting, but still, there are more than a few interludes where the narrative bogs down in philosophizing and the entire forward momentum of the novel grinds to a halt.

By the end, I was ready to be done — hence my not-quite-stellar 3.5 star rating. Yes, I enjoyed this book as a whole, but didn’t fall in love with it… and despite it being a relatively short book, it still felt like more than what was needed to tell this particular story. If you enjoy Matt Haig’s writing, do check out The Life Impossible! There are enough lovely elements to make it a worthwhile reading experience.

End note: There are many wonderful passages about books and reading, and I simply can’t end this review without sharing a few:

I always think that the quickest way to understand someone is to look at what’s on their bookshelves.