When retired Grace Winters is left a run-down house by a woman she barely knows in a place she’s never been before, she takes the opportunity before her to inject some change into her life. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket and among the pristine beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life and how it ended. The discoveries she makes will alter her life in dramatic, and magical, ways.
Author Matt Haig’s prose is clear and approachable. Haig’s writing style makes the book easy to read in spite of its philosophical and mathematical undertones. The book offers moments of real poignancy and emotional weight that pull the reader in and helps connect the reader to the characters. Haig is compassionate towards his characters and humanity as a whole and that comes through clearly.
The Life Impossible sometimes feels repetitive, echoing themes and observations Haig has explored more effectively in previous works like The Midnight Library. The story leans heavily on sympathy towards Grace with the character frequently voicing that she does not feel like she is a good person or deserves happiness. This can grate on some readers as the language is persistent up until the end of the book. Readers familiar with Haig’s previous work and the inspirational topics that he focuses on may find themselves thinking that they’ve read this book before.
If you enjoy stories with magical elements but often grounded in real-world situations like The Life Impossible, you might enjoy these read-alikes: The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle, and The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt.
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