Provocative and profound, Sebastian Faulks’ dazzling novel journeys across continents and time to explore the chaos created by love, separation and missed opportunities. From the pain and drama of these highly particular lives emerges a mysterious consolation: the chance to feel your heart beat in someone else’s life.
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'Profound . . . Faulks evokes a deep compassion' OBSERVER 'Does what a good novel should - it unsettles, it moves, and it forces us to question who we are' SUNDAY TIMES 'A delight . . . moving and exciting' DAILY TELEGRAPH
Five lives overlap across two centuries. School teacher Geoffrey's war takes him to the brink of sanity; Billy's fortitude lifts him from the Victorian slums in London; Elena and Jeanne interrogate the notion of the soul, from opposite points of view, a century apart. And for Anya, a young American singer-songwriter, only her producer Jack can understand the depths of their bond as art and life collide.
In a symphony of fiction, A Possible Life defies the boundaries of the novel, to explore the deepest questions of how we are connected to one another.
'A Possible Life is more than the sum of its parts . . . the stories acquire power as resonances between them accrete. Only at the end do you realise you've been won over by their quiet, glinting virtuosity' THE TIMES
'In form and scope, Sebastian Faulk's new novel is an unexpected delight ... There's little sense of Faulks overreaching with heavily researched detail ... you trust the narrative whether it is set in a workhouse or a death camp or a recording studio ... It's rare to see an established writer broaden his range. A tightly written, moving and exciting work of fiction that deserves success, it should thrill established readers as well as win new fans. If you think you know Faulks - or even (an especially) if you haven't enjoyed his previous novels - it's time to look again.' Telegraph
'These stories are delicate, persuasive expressions of one of the melancholies of ageing - the sorry realisation that your life has after all not been as distinctive as it felt at the time, a realisation perhaps best met by the hope that the very communality of life can yet be treasured.' Evening Standard
Author
About Sebastian Faulks
Sebastian Faulks was born and brought up in Newbury, Berkshire. He worked in journalism before starting to write books. He is best known for the French trilogy, The Girl at the Lion d'Or, Birdsong and CharlotteGray (1989-1997) and is also the author of a triple biography, The Fatal Englishman (1996); a small book of literary parodies, Pistache (2006); and the novels HumanTraces (2005) and Engleby (2007). He lives in London with his wife and their three children. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1993 and appointed CBE for services to literature in 2002. He lives in London with his wife and their three children.
'Profound . . . Faulks evokes a deep compassion' OBSERVER 'Does what a good novel should - it unsettles, it moves, and it forces us to question who we are' SUNDAY TIMES 'A delight . . . moving and exciting' DAILY TELEGRAPH
Five lives overlap across two centuries. School teacher Geoffrey's war takes him to the brink of sanity; Billy's fortitude lifts him from the Victorian slums in London; Elena and Jeanne interrogate the notion of the soul, from opposite points of view, a century apart. And for Anya, a young American singer-songwriter, only her producer Jack can understand the depths of their bond as art and life collide.
In a symphony of fiction, A Possible Life defies the boundaries of the novel, to explore the deepest questions of how we are connected to one another.
'A Possible Life is more than the sum of its parts . . . the stories acquire power as resonances between them accrete. Only at the end do you realise you've been won over by their quiet, glinting virtuosity' THE TIMES
A Possible Life features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Historical Fiction, eBooks of the Month, General Fiction, Fiction, Recommendations
A Possible Life is available in Paperback, Hardback, CD-Audio
A Possible Life was written by Sebastian Faulks and published by Penguin Books an imprint of Cornerstone
