The Life Impossible: A Chevron Ross Book Review
People live under the influence of their senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. But most of us believe there is world beyond the reach of our senses, and that is faith. Matt Haig’s novel The Life Impossible takes us on a journey where the two worlds coexist.
Grace Winter, a 72-year-old retired math teacher, is sunk in a guilt depression over the death of her son, and her unfaithfulness to her husband. One day she receives a letter announcing that Christina van der Berg, whom she once befriended, has died and left her a house in Ibiza, a Mediterranean island. On her arrival she learns that Christina was murdered for trying to preserve the island’s ecological purity. A marine biologist named Alberto Ribas tells her that the seagrass meadow off Ibiza’s coast is an ancient living organism. Alberto calls it La Presencia: The Presence.
A diving expedition into The Presence leaves Grace with telekinetic powers. She can not only move objects, but hear other people’s thoughts and experience their emotions. Alberto explains that the house was Christina’s way of luring Grace to Ibiza to continue her work.
What follows is a beautiful balance of transcendentalism and reality. Once Grace absorbs her new abilities, she finds herself drawn into a crusade against dark forces determined to plunder Ibiza for its tourist potential. It is a battle she must win so that Christina’s death will not be in vain.
The best thing about this book is how persuasive it is that all things, organic and inorganic, are part of a wondrous universal whole. Grace tells us that a phosphorescent light within The Presence is “like looking at a feeling.” Exploring her powers, she learns that “If you want to visit a new world, you don’t need a spacecraft. All you need to do is change your mind.”
For readers uncomfortable with spiritual narratives, Haig keeps the story grounded in reality. Ibiza’s population is a happy, carefree people who relish life. As Grace plunges into danger she takes time to partake of a joy she thought she would never have because of her guilt.
I must limit my rating to four stars due to the disappointing frequency of offensive language, and some surprising grammatical errors in a story so eloquent; i.e., “I remember me and Karl arguing . . .”. If you can overlook these flaws, you will find The Life Impossible a well-paced and thought-provoking adventure into the rebirth of a human spirit.