The Life Impossible: A Novel

I really enjoy Matt Haig’s intimate understanding of psychology, depression and the clever and intriguing stories he tells.

I’ve enjoyed Haig’s writing in the past and was excited for this, but “The Life Impossible” fell flat for me. The novel felt far too long and the moral/philosophical lessons were an onslaught throughout. It’s a cautionary tale not to live in the past or the future, and perhaps a thin ‘permission slip’ style story inspiring someone to leave behind regrets and live the life you wanted to… but only if you can pay attention through the many, many details about math and the main character’s childlike review of her backstory. I did appreciate the wisdom of the ending, it just felt like I had already been hammered with it all throughout the book.

I loved the book and some of them lessons learned

Enjoyed this very much. Joanna Lumley does a great job of reading it. I also enjoyed Haig's previous book, the Midnight Library. I find it interesting that he writes with female protagonists. Not many men can write women well but in retrospect perhaps he works with the more androgynist aspects and that is why it works. Haig brings in so many different aspects to the book - mathematics, astrophysics, marine biology, mythology and so on. Very impressive the way they are weaved together into a wonderful story.

I skimmed the last half of this book as it seemed to grow more farfetched as it went. There are nuggets of philosophical truth within the pages, but a lot of clutter to read through to find them. I found the book very disappointing.