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Book Reviewed by:
Norah Piehl
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In this funny and poignant novel, two strangers learn that their soul mate might be both as close as breath and as distant as a star, from British Fantasy Award recipient Sarah Lotz.
Bee thinks she has everything: a successful business repurposing wedding dresses, and friends who love and support her. She's given up on finding love, but that's fine. There's always Tinder. Nick thinks he has nothing: his writing career has stalled after early promise and his marriage is on the rocks, but that's fine. There's always gin. So when one of Nick's emails, a viciously funny screed intended for a non-paying client, accidentally pings into Bee's inbox, they decide to keep the conversation going. After all, they never have to meet.
But the more they get to know each other, the more Bee and Nick realize they want to. They both notice strange pop culture or political references that crop up in their correspondence, but nothing odd enough to stop Bee and Nick for falling hard for each other. But when their efforts to meet in real life fail spectacularly, Bee and Nick discover that they're actually living in near-identical but parallel worlds. With a universe between them, Bee and Nick will discover how far they'll go to beat impossible odds.
From: NB26@zone.com
To: Bee1984@gmail.com
Subject: What the HELL is wrong with you?
Listen you tight-fisted pea-brained grouse-shooting tweedy twat, you may own half the fucking countryside but you don't own me. You think I like hounding you? You think this is fun for me? But if you think I'm just going to lie back and let you screw me over like you no doubt screw over everyone who comes into your entitled orbit of damp lolling spaniels, vintage Land Rovers and Eton-induced PTSD then you've got another think coming.
DO THE RIGHT THING FOR ONCE IN YOUR BADGER-BAITING FOX-SLAUGHTERING LIFE.
From: Bee1984@gmail.com
To: NB26@zone.com
Subject: What the HELL is wrong with you?
Hi.
You might want to double-check the recipient address. Far as I know, I've never owned a Land Rover & have definitely never been to Eton (don't have the right ...
The Impossible Us weighs in at well over 500 pages, but the narrative really flies by, in part because a significant portion is composed of Bee and Nick's email exchanges, which are pithy and frequently very funny. The remainder unfolds in short chapters alternating between the two characters' perspectives. Lotz excels at developing a plausible love story, and at exploring the more speculative elements of the plot without getting bogged down in explanations. The story is sure to open readers' hearts and minds to imagining a world, or worlds, of infinite possibilities...continued
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(Reviewed by Norah Piehl).
Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne
An absolutely addictive read, perfect for fans of Katie Khan. I was swept away by Bee and Nick's impossible love story...and I was utterly hooked from the start. A story that is funny, sweet and full of twists that made it genuinely unputdownable. Jill Mansell, New York Times bestselling author of And Now You're Back
Have finished reading The Impossible Us by Sarah Lotz and it is indeed amazing…Ingenious and beautifully executed. Margarita Montimore, USA Today bestselling author of Oona Out of Order
Clever, unexpected, and delightfully twisted—in other words, the perfect love story. The Impossible Us is built on brilliant concept that pushes at the boundaries of convention—and the laws of physics. I loved it in this dimension, and if there are versions of me in alternate dimensions, I'm sure they loved it, too.
In The Impossible Us, Nick becomes connected with a group calling themselves the Berenstain Society. Their name is inspired by one of the most famous examples of what's popularly known as the Mandela effect. The Mandela effect, according to Medical News Today, "describes a situation in which a person or a group of people have a false memory of an event." The name was coined in 2009 after self-described paranomal consultant Fiona Broome noted on her blog that not only she, but also many other people, had vivid memories of Nelson Mandela dying in a South African jail when he was imprisoned during the apartheid period in the 1980s. Mandela, of course, did not die in prison; he went on to serve as the president of South Africa after his release...
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