Book Review: Matt Haig’s The Life Impossible
By Asma G
“Eating watermelon in the sun was such a wonderful feeling I wondered why I hadn’t spent more of my life doing it. I wondered why it wasn’t everyone’s aspiration. I wondered why every successful businessperson on the planet continued to work and visit offices and stare at computers when they could just quit and eat watermelon in the sun for ever (sic).” Grace Winters, the protagonist of Matt Haig’s latest novel, The Life Impossible muses.
Sipping on a hot chocolate in a café as I read this, I am filled with delight; Grace Winters seems like a woman after my own heart. I take a quick break from reading Haig’s book to think about why this feels so profound. “Should I journal about this?” I wonder, but my curiosity about what happens next is too strong to suppress, so I mark the page to re-visit later and continue reading.
The Life Impossible was published in September 2024. I got my hands on the book in November and began reading it soon after Haig’s bestseller The Midnight Library hit the milestone of 10 million copies being sold.
The Life Impossible is set in Ibiza, Spain and takes the form of a story written by the protagonist Grace Winters, in response to a despondent email she receives from a former student.
(Long-time followers of Haig’s may remember Ibiza as having special significance for Haig in his journey with mental health and mental illness. In 1999, at the age of 24, Haig experienced a breakdown and nearly died in Ibiza. In post on Instagram this year, Haig mentions how he vowed to never to return to Ibiza after he got better. Haig finally returned to Ibiza in 2022, after years of therapy, upon the prompting of his therapist.)
Grace Winters is a 72-year-old, retired Math teacher. When we meet her at the beginning of the book, she is incredibly lonely and leads a solitary life in the midlands in the UK, having being widowed four years prior, and having lost her only child, Daniel in an accident, 32 years ago. Winters has been dealing with anhedonia – the inability to feel pleasure – for a number of years.
Winters sets off to Ibiza after being informed that she has been bequeathed a property in Ibiza by an old-acquaintance, Christina, who has recently passed away under mysterious circumstances. What follows is an incredible adventure for Winters, as she tries uncovering the truth behind Christina’s disappearance. She meets Alberto Ribas, once a renowned marine biologist, now persona non grata in academic circles because of his claims that extra-terrestrial forces exist in the Balearic Islands. Winters undergoes a whirlwind of experiences in Ibiza – she goes diving; she forms unlikely friendships; she acquires extra-sensory talents like telepathy, telekinesis, and clairvoyance; she goes clubbing at 2 AM at the Amnesia nightclub in Ibiza – all in the pursuit of understanding what happened to Christina and why Christina chose to leave her house to her, of all people. Winters teams up with Ribas and his daughter Marta to save the island from an unscrupulous property developer and in doing so, she finds meaning and purpose.
The Life Impossible makes for a nice, light read. Haig’s lived experience with mental illness and his work as a mental health advocate truly come through in his exploration of Winters’ internal struggles. Winters feels intense guilt over her son’s death; she believes that she is a bad person; she has been a bad mother, and a bad wife, and that she doesn’t deserve happiness because of she is a bad person. Haig’s description of Winters’ anhedonia, her deep-seated guilt and her intentional decision to deny herself pleasure for decades add incredible value to the book.
Bio: Asma G is a feminist writer with an interest in public policy and mental health. You can read more of her pieces right here, and find her on Instagram at @asmag7
