The Possible World by Liese O’Halloran Schwarz a four-star read that will make you think. This book had so many positive aspects to it, the three stories intertwine so well they really do show us human nature at its very basic self. It makes you stop and think about the way we interact with others and how we communicate or at least it did for me. The story is told from the three main perspectives of Lucy Cole and ER doctor, Clare and elderly lady living in a care home and a small boy called Ben who prefers to be called Leo, he has had a terrible time in his short life and deserves so much more. Each person tells a story of pain and life and you start wondering how they would interact with each other as on the surface they are three people at opposite ends of the scale. But as time moves on and the story develops you will see why the author chose the characters they did. My only problem was that as strong as the characters were at a couple of points I had to re-read the pages as I kept thinking I had missed something but I couldn’t find what I had missed, that being said overall a very good and intriguing story.

A tender tale with beautifully portrayed characters. It begins with 6 year old Ben, who witnesses and is the sole survivor of an horrific crime. We are then introduced to Lucy, an ER doctor, and in chapter 3 we meet elderly Clare who is in a care home. So far we are horrified by what happened to Ben and sympathetic toward Lucy and Clare. But where is this story going? Enter chapter 4 and Leo. You will now sit up and really start paying attention. Soon you will begin to understand what is happening and everything falls into place. I started to read it in the middle of a busy period and had to keep putting it down but after Leo, everything else had to wait and I read it straight through. I really liked this book. You hope that it will come together the way you want it to but you won’t know until the end. Highly recommended.

People appear in our lives when we need them most - this is the case for Lucy and Ben, and Clare. Ben is the sole survivor of a terrible crime but has he lived before his life as Ben? Lucy is a doctor who has given her career her all but at what personal cost. Clare has a life full of secrets and is persuaded to tell them because of an unusual friendship. Something stronger than fate appears to want to bring them together. A beautifully written book that will have you turning the pages. Highly recommend.

What appears at first to be a crime novel turns into so much more. Beautifully written and compulsively readable, Liese O'Halloran Schwartz's characters and story will stay with you long after the book is over.

Thank you to netgalley.co.uk for the free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I was intrigued by this book when I got an email about it, and I am glad that it did not disappoint! I thought this was well written, the chapters throughout the novel are split into three different perspectives, most books I read cannot grasp this concept. However, this author does it well and can capture three unique characters through her writing; I was hooked as soon as I started this book.

This warm, heart-rending story really reminded me of the best of Jodi Picoult! All three characters are very relatable, and each of their strands are really compelling, in very different ways. The cover is beautiful, too - I'd definitely pick this up!

Ben survives a horrendous crime but loses his mother and friends.
Lucy is the doctor who looks after him, realizing she knew his mother.
Clare is at the end of her life, alone and decides her life needs to be known.

They are all struggling to confront what has happened but could they all be connected in some way and can they manage to overcome their demons?

I rarely request titles from the "General/Adult Fiction" category on NetGalley but when I do I usually find I have an enoyable time exploring a different genre to my usuals. While there were some plus points to the book there were also quite significant shortfalls.

Okay, Let's begin with the good points. The writing is pretty perfect and Schwarz injects the story with some unique and special ideas adding to its originality. The characters were authentic and realistic which was absolutely necessary for the type of story this is. The multiple viewpoints offer each characters perspective on the situation which I always apprecate. The narrative is slow to begin with while building up the various layers and then picks up to a steady canter for the rest of the way. I had no idea this was about reincarnation but I thought that it was a stroke of genius on the author's part.

So, to the negatives. You've heard of those books that people say don't actually have a story to them? Well, this is one of those. Sometimes I enjoy them, other times I don't. This one? Not so much. It never seemed to go anywhere for me. It has so many positive aspects that I just wish there had been an actual plot of some sort.

I must mention the cover art - extremely beautiful with bold and bright colours, gorgeous!

This is basically a book about the intricacies of human nature and the connections we have with one another even if we don't realise it. I can see I am in the minority with these views and I do feel that most readers would get along just fine with this story. There are certainly a lot more advantages to disadvantages in terms of deciding whether to give this a go. It just wasn't for me.

I would try another title if Liese O'Halloran Schwarz published one in the future as I do feel she has a lot of the ingredients to be a bestseller. Unfortunately, there was a little something missing for me in "The Possible World."

Many thanks to Hutchinson for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This was a wonderful read, really moving. A fascinating exploration of life, love and how relationship impact our lives. Its set over a century and you feel completely engrossed in the story of the characters lives. Ive been recommending this to all my friends.

This is such a beautiful story it made me cry.

The possible world is the story of four people, Ben, Leo, Lucy and Claire.
Ben, a boy of six years, whose just lost his mother to a brutal murder, Leo, a boy who lives in Ben's head and memories, Lucy, an ER doctor, whose life is falling apart and Claire, a lady, almost hundred years old who has experienced loss more than anybody should.
They are all very different but still they are connected. The connection between them isn't clear until later in the book and it keeps you guessing and interested in the story from the beginning to the end.

Like I said, the story itself is marvelous and so, so beautiful. It's not particularly happy, it's actually quite sad and full of darkness and misery. It goes through Leo and Claire's story in their memories and Lucy lives through her life that is falling apart. All these little pieces we read through, moves us toward the ending, where all of it makes sense and all of them are connected.

It is so hard to put into words how I felt when reading this book. It's been awhile since I really cried when reading a book.
In the end, they all felt happiness. They all had they happy endings in a way. And after I closed the book, it was really hard for me to fall asleep because I was so, so overwhelmed with the book and how it made me feel. It was truly, truly beautiful and it is still hard for me to comprehend that I've finished it. But I do recommend this book to each and everyone of you from the bottom of my heart.

This book is quite simply magical!

Imagine the Fates weaving their tapestries, tying people together and cutting threads. The Possible World had some of that mystery about it, with the different lives of Leo, Clare and Lucy zigzagging closer together and then further apart. Finding out the ways that they are connected was a joy.
In a way, this novel felt like two novels interlaid with each other. First there is the story of Leo, the little boy who is the only possible witness to an unspeakable crime. For the first part of the book all I cared about was Leo. Was he going to be alright? What had caused him to be so quiet?

Then, gradually, something changed. As all of the characters grow on you they begin to feel very real. I would have quite happily read an entire novel about Lucy's life in accident and emergency! I suppose some people might find the sections about her a little off topic, as the descriptions of the other cases she dealt with don't fit so much into the overarching plot of the novel. I found though that it made her feel much more real. With less detail about her life she could have quite easily felt like a plot device designed to help sandwich together Clare and Leo.

By the second half of the novel it was Clare I cared about. Poor grouchy Clare. At first I had hated her. How miserable she seemed! Slowly, Schwarz worked her magic and Clare was transformed into the heroine. I really felt reminded that behind every grouchy or frustrated elderly person there is an entire lifetime of stories just waiting to be told.

Schwarz's ability to bring together all of these threads into a compelling narrative was very impressive. The ending of the novel was so bittersweet but felt like the only possible ending.

I look forward to reading more from this immensely talented author soon! Thank you to Random House UK, Cornerstone and to Netgalley for the opportunity to read The Possible World. I've crossposted this review to my blog, to be posted on publication day.

This book is cleverly narrated from 3 different perspectives: an overworked doctor whose marriage is ending; an elderly lady in a care home, slowly revealing her secrets; a small boy who has lost everything. And each character is worthy of their own novel. And in telling their stories the novel gives us a profound insight into America. A nation where overworked people sacrifice their marriages; a place of chilling and casual cruelty and murder; a place where the elderly are left to rot in care homes and fed calming drugs. But also a country of huge compassion, tolerance. And love. Buy this book, if you can. Steal it if you can’t. I loved it so, so much.

A unique story about the lives we live and how they inhabit our memories, The Possible World is compelling and absorbing with exquisite prose and beautiful characterization. It isn’t my usual genre, but it was so absorbing, the characters so compelling, the prose so exquisite, I couldn’t put it down.

The story opens with a bang with Ben (Leo), who is the only survivor of a vicious crime that claims his mother’s life. Ben is left all alone, unable to remember what happened to his mother. Instead, he somehow, inexplicably remembers somebody else’s horrific past. Lucy is the ER doctor who first speaks to Ben. She’s drawn to Ben, wanting to help him remember what happened to his mother and they form a close bond. Meanwhile, there’s Clare, an elderly woman telling the story of her past.

It was intriguing these three stories were woven together. My only tiny complaint would be that the crime at the beginning of the book seems to somehow disappear and isn’t really addressed much in the rest of the book. It starts as a crime/thriller then deviates into something magical, centering on re-incarnation, and that isn’t clear at all from the description, so I was a little baffled when it was first introduced. I don’t mind suspending my belief for books, but even at the end I felt it didn’t really address the crime enough and the final scene with Clare and Ben was brushed over so fast as to be almost abrupt.

That being said, this is a beautifully told story that I found absorbing and intriguing. Not in a ‘read-in-one-sitting’ sort of way, but in a ‘draw-it-out-and-savor-it’ sort of way. Despite the genre confusion, I’d still rate it a 5* simply because of how enjoyable it was to read and the exquisite characterisation and prose.

Thank you to Netgalley for letting me read The Possible World by Liese O'Halloran Schwartz in exchange for my honest review.

The whole story only mentions the existence of an idea both interesting and intriguing. But it didn't "feed" me enough to give a better rating. The plot is simple with the author using some nice narratives to describe the characters but still I was left thirsty for more.

6 year old Ben is the sole survivor of a brutal murder of his mum, her friend and her children. However, the murder isn't really the main subject of the story. The lives of Ben, Lucy the ER doctor and an elderly lady Clare are told beautifully, very slowly revealing their interconnections. It is a clever, novel plot, and well written. I couldn't read it quickly enough!

This book is beautifully written and I couldn't put it down.
It tells the entwined stories of Ben the sole survivor of a mass murder, Lucy an ER doctor and Clare an elderly woman with a mysterious past. As the book develops we learn about Leo too and his link to Clare.
The links between the three are carefully developed in a way that makes you warm to them and they seem like real people because of the authors talent for developing her characters.

My ‘book that you got for free’ is “The Possible World” by Liese O’Halloran Schwarz. Thanks to the publisher, Random House UK, and Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy.

First off, I am not going to go into too much detail with the plot of this book because one of the reasons I loved it was the way it unfolded and knitted together. For me, a book which is cared for and thought about and written beautifully is a joy to read, and this one was. I don’t want to ruin it by spilling too much though!

The first chapter is told first person through Ben - a little boy, small for his age and nervous about going to a birthday party with other kids, bigger and meaner than he is. His Mum assures him it’ll be fine and she’ll pick him up in a few hours. The scene is so real, so natural, between the small boys, that I was in the basement with them. As predicted, one of the boys is mean and Ben is so nervous that he goes to the bathroom for something to do. When he comes out, his life is changed forever. (Sorry, cryptic!)

In the meantime, we follow Clare, a centegenerian in a care home who is faintly exasperated with the ‘young ‘uns’ coming in at 70 years old. She only wants to sleep and read, and definitely does not want to make any kind of new friend or relationship at this time of her life. She’s too busy trying to forget the other relationships, at any rate.

Thirdly, we get to be a part of Lucy’s life as she navigates through residency and ‘death month’ - a month of night shifts which means balancing enough sleep in the daylight hours with just enough socialising so that your life is not all work/sleep/enough food to keep you alive. In this section it really becomes clear that O’Halloran Schwarz has a detailed knowledge of medicine and the ER - everything was clearly described and vivid, I could see it all.

As each person’s story unfolds it allows us to see the similarities, and in some cases there are crossovers. Characters pop up in multiple stories as the narrative is knitted together. The themes come out strong and clear: regret, shame, humanity. We are all striving for the same thing - no matter where we live or what we do or how our lives begin and end. Comfort, closeness from other human beings (or cats). Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t - we need to keep moving forward to get to the next section of our journeys.

I really loved this book. I think for a lot of books, your current state of mind makes a difference and I know that I am in exactly the right place, mentally, for this right now. Very rarely do I clamour to keep reading a book and this was the first one in a long time that I couldn’t wait to read at night, at lunch, whenever I could. I even put down my phone for long enough to mean I got some decent reading time before bed! I wholeheartedly recommend it if you’re a fan of time changes, flashbacks, stories with people in the middle of them - Kate Atkinson or Audrey Niffenegger.

Lastly, thank you to Liese O’Halloran Schwarz for writing this with her heart and soul.

Really lovely storytelling, and wonderful human portraits, bringing people together. Great writing - would recommend.

This book was a bit different for me. I found it a bit hard to get into at first but then once I realized it was about reincarnation, it all fell into place and I really started to enjoy it.
Ben, a six year old, is the sole survivor of a mass shooting making him revert into himself, resulting in him remembering his past life as a boy names Leo.
Clare is a near 100 year old woman who survives a hurricane and a troublesome relationship and meets Leo as an 11 year old.
If you find it hard to get into at the beginning, please stick with it.

Oh my heart......the best book I have read for ages. The author tells the tale through 3 people, Claire, Lucy and Ben/Leo. It’s a really engrossing read and the three lives are very different, with a bit of war, murder,hardship, a failed marriage and loss. It all comes together at the very end and while it is just so sad and made me weep, it’s also a lovely ending. I can thoroughly recommend it.