The Life Impossible

The Life Impossible ~ Matt Haig

Grace Winters is 72 years old, a retired maths teacher who is recently widowed. She has lived in a state of grief and guilt since the death of her young son decades earlier, a death she blames on herself. She is depressed and bored and full of self-hatred. One day, she learns that she has been left a house on the Spanish island of Ibiza, by a co-worker from over 30 years ago, Christina, a woman she didn’t know well, but whose life she impacted mightily. She decides to leave her home in England and go to Ibiza and check out the house, and see if she can find out what happened to her friend, who ‘died at sea’. That’s in quotes, because no one seems to know exactly how she died, and her body has not been found.

In Ibiza, she meets several of Christina’s friends, and surprises herself by accepting invitations to have adventures and learn to find pleasure in life again, to enjoy a glass of orange juice or dancing to electronic music. Because this is a Matt Haig book, there is a magical realism factor to the story. A sentence that made me laugh out loud: “His slappable face continued talking.” I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Highly recommended.

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