“A brilliantly written, moving story” (The Washington Book Review) about the converging lives of a young boy who witnesses a murder, the ER doctor who tends to him, and a woman guarding her long-buried past, from the author of What Could Be Saved. It seems like just another night shift for Lucy, an overworked ER physician in Providence, Rhode Island, until six-year-old Ben is brought in as the … until six-year-old Ben is brought in as the sole survivor from a crime scene. He’s traumatized and wordless; everything he knows has been taken from him in an afternoon. It’s not clear what he saw or what he remembers.
Lucy, who’s grappling with the demise of her marriage, feels a profound connection to the little boy. She wants to help him…but will recovering his memory heal him or damage him further?
Across town, Clare will soon be turning one hundred years old. She has long believed that the secrets she’s been keeping don’t matter to anyone anymore, but a surprising encounter makes her realize that the time has come to tell her story.
As Ben, Lucy, and Clare struggle to confront the events that shattered their lives, something stronger than fate is working to bring them together.
The Possible World spans nearly a century–from the Great Depression through the Vietnam War era and into the present–and “in beautifully crafted prose” (Booklist) captures the complicated ways our pasts shape our identities, and how timeless bonds can triumph over grief. “A bittersweet story full of imagination and nostalgia, loss and redemption…The Possible World will seize readers from the first scene and hold tight until its satisfying conclusion” (Kirkus Reviews).
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Beautifully written, fascinating, dark but also hopeful.
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.
It was intriguing how these three stories were woven together. 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.
This was not at all what I expected from the description, but I really liked it! Bit of a twist, but not overdone. Very sweet and lovely story.
Beautifully written from the perspective of a child. Absolutely inspiring and I adored the storyline. This book was like a breath of fresh air.
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.
Disaster, Reckoning, and Relationships. This book delves into the lives of several characters who have experienced great trauma and disappointment. Their lives turn out to be interconnected and present several mysteries to be unraveled. The transitions among the various character narratives are seamless and the author does a great job of weaving the stories together. I would recommend reading about the Rhode Island hurricane of 1938 before reading the book.
Confusing with two identities for the protagonist as if he had parallel lives did not strike me as reality based. Good beginning began to unravel and I had to keep going back over previous chapters to try to figure out the story.
Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team
Ruthie –
I really enjoy stories which make me think outside my usual life, and which have a non-standard plot, and I love them especially much, if they are well written. This book ticked ALL those boxes.
Whilst I think that more or less everything that happens in the book is signposted early on, that is not really the point of the book, in my opinion. It is the emotions which are original on every page, and from each of the narrators. The attention to detail about the minutiae of life that make up a whole; the intricate melding of time and events to create three (or really four) people who will stick in your mind, is most engaging.
For me, one of the most interesting things was that I kept thinking they were in Ireland, or England, and not the USA. It was so like what I would expect it to have been in either country – and made me think that the similarities then were probably greater than now. The storm scene was particularly vivid and cruel. Whereas the modern-day ER actually gave relief from the sadness, which was a weird realisation.
At the risk of giving anything away, my advice is grab a copy of this well written, cleverly crafted book and enjoy. I think it starts slowly, but it builds up speed and has a satisfying way of making you read ‘just one more chapter’ until you reach the very end!
Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of The Possible World by Liese O’Halloran Schwarz to read and review.
This is definitely an exceptional novel.
It is based on three main characters, a young boy who has witnessed a horrible tragedy and is the sole survivor, an elderly woman named Clara, who is 100. She is living in a nursing home with amazing memories, and an emergency room resident, Lucy, who is attempting to put the plot together, both in her own life and that of the young boy whose name is Ben, but wants to be Leo, and why?
Reincarnation? I would believe it. How is it that Clara is looking for Leo and Ben aka Leo is looking for Clara, when they are so many years apart?
A beautifully written descriptive novel, that will have you wondering about life, now and in the past.
The Possible World is told by three different points of view. Clare is a resident in a nursing home, she has a secret past that she has never told anyone. Leo is a young teen that was given to a orphanage by his mother. Leo meets Clare and she raises him. She is about to turn 100 years old.
Ben is a young boy and the only survivor of a mass murder at a birthday party. He is traumatized and doesn’t remember the event. Under hypnosis he starts to remember some things and he also wants to be called Leo.
Lucy is a ER doctor who has recently separated from her husband. She is on duty when Ben arrives in the ER. Lucy learns that Ben is the son of Karen, one of her coworkers. Karen was one of the murder victims at the birthday party.
This story covers from the Great Depression, the Vietnam War to present day. It shows how the actions and decisions we make shapes who we are. A wonderful but sad story of love, family and heartbreak.