Matt Haig praises the magic of Ibiza in “The Life Impossible”

“Reality is not always probable or probable.” This quote from the late Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges begins Matt Haig’s new novel, “The Life Impossible.” If you have fundamental objections to this, you don’t need to turn the page.

But if you're willing to put aside your skepticism when reading fiction, this is a gripping story. Some readers, like my teenage daughter, who devoured Haig's bestseller, The Midnight Library, may not relate so much to the 70-year-old narrator recovering from varicose vein surgery, but the book's plot deals with her physical deterioration soon enough.

The action takes place on Ibiza, the Spanish island famous for its nightclubs. When narrator Grace Winters suddenly inherits a run-down house there, she leaves her tragic life as a childless and widowed math teacher in England behind for an adventure. And, oh, what an adventure! While piecing together the fate of a college acquaintance, Christina, who gave her the house, Grace meets Alberto Ribas, a “formerly respected marine biologist” who now runs diving tours in the Mediterranean, whom Grace describes as “not so much a pirate as a castaway, his unkempt hair and beard falling in all directions into his face.” During one of these dives, Grace's life is forever changed by a blue phosphorescent light she swims toward underwater. “La Presencia,” or “The Presence,” gives her real superpowers, the details of which are too entertaining to give away here.

And although the plot proudly deviates from reality at this point, she is unaware of it. Grace is a reliable narrator and the structure of the novel involves her telling her story to a former student. “Mathematics is… as mysterious and enigmatic as all of life, and to expect it – or anything else – to confirm what I wanted was a mistake,” she writes. Grace's reawakening to the wonders of nature forms the second half of the story, as she and a number of characters work to save parts of Ibiza from development.

It will take the average reader just a few hours to read the entire book. Very short chapters – some just one sentence long – make the pages fly by. And while some may finish the last sentence shaking their heads because the whole thing is so unimaginable, Grace's realization that everything on earth deserves admiration and preservation is a message that the whole world can get behind.

___

AP Book Reviews: