The Life Impossible

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. Discuss your emotional responses to The Life Impossible. Which scenes, plot points, and scenarios resonated the most with you, and why?

2. Compare and contrast your experience reading The Life Impossible to your experiences reading Haig’s other titles, such as The Midnight Library and How to Stop Time. What narrative, stylistic, and thematic threads run between Haig’s work?

3. What other works of magical realism reflect content and themes within The Life Impossible? Discuss the overlaps between Haig’s novel and novels like Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Samantha Sotto Yambao’s Water Moon, and Kate Weinberg’s There’s Nothing Wrong With Her.

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. Discuss your responses to Grace Winters’s newfound clairvoyant and telekinetic powers. How did this narrative revelation change your impressions of the narrative world and Grace’s storyline?

2. The novel explores The Journey from Grief to Healing through Grace’s experiences. Do you think her encounters with loss and her attempts to heal are relatable? How do her experiences compare with your own?