Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

A Possible Life

3.43 of 5 stars 3.43 · rating details · 950 ratings · 228 reviews

Terrified, a young prisoner in the Second World War closes his eyes and pictures himself going out to bat on a sunlit cricket ground in Hampshire.

Across the courtyard in a Victorian workhouse, a father is too ashamed to acknowledge his son.

A skinny girl steps out of a Chevy with a guitar and sings four songs that send shivers through the skull.

Through desperation and de...more

Hardcover, 304 pages

Published September 11th 2012 by Bond Street Books (first published January 1st 2012)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

Man Booker Prize Eligible 2012

123rd out of 152 books — 218 voters

want to read books

107th out of 198 books — 157 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Nov 08, 2012 Velma rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, arcs-galleys-proofs, 2012-reads

Faulks is apparently a well-respected writer, but I certainly couldn't tell that by A Possible Life; it just made me want to look for a possible life in which I hadn't spent several days reading it.

Don't get me wrong: I think Mr. Faulks can write. I was intrigued by the premise (five people, five places, five periods in history). I was drawn to the questions he asked about souls and roads not taken. But somehow he just didn't make me care about his characters, not one whit. For example, in one o...more

9 likes · like · see review

Apr 14, 2013 Indiabookstore rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“Sometimes my whole life seems like a dream; occasionally I think that someone else has lived it for me. The events and the sensations, the stories and the things that make me what I am in the eyes of other people, the list of facts that make my life … They could be mine, they might be yours.”

Ever wondered why a certain someone walked into your life but never stayed behind? Or how in a moment of understanding you forgave the one who betrayed you into a world of misery? A Possible Life is a journ...more

like · see review

Apr 08, 2013 Kenneth rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So much of this book, and the imagined lives it relates, reads like life under a microscope. This is partly due to the Faulk's use of Third-Person Omniscient, but also due to Faulks's determination to present the life lived with no qualification or explanation other than that offered by the experiences of the characters. It almost mimics the voyeuristic tendencies of modern audiences watching private lives on reality TV. In fact so much of this novel is of its time, despite references to other t...more So much of this book, and the imagined lives it relates, reads like life under a microscope. This is partly due to the Faulk's use of Third-Person Omniscient, but also due to Faulks's determination to present the life lived with no qualification or explanation other than that offered by the experiences of the characters. It almost mimics the voyeuristic tendencies of modern audiences watching private lives on reality TV. In fact so much of this novel is of its time, despite references to other times. It is a study of sorts, a study of what brings us together and what keeps us apart, of connections and of differences, and of how we are connected and seperated not just by knowledge, events, language, and culture, but by our own personal and unique interpretation of the same.
It is the third story in this book - Everything Can Be Explained - where the themes of existence, belonging and identity become most apparent, and it is this chapter that shows how existence is more likely to be understood through narrative and storytelling. It is a pivotal chapter.

"He gave Elena accounts of the imagined lives of the local teachers that made her ache with laughter." (Part III)

For 'imagined lives' read 'A Possible Life', and it is no accident that Bruno - an orphan - who relates these stories to Elena, later becomes a novelist, a storyteller, in sharp contrast to the rational future academic Elena who undestands and relates life and existence through DNA and more scientific methods. It is a balance between fact and fiction.

In a cultural context, the book is an example of, and represents many cultural trends. The individual personal lives represent the heterogeneous narratives and nature of a global community - connected, but different; and the traversing of time and space is a metaphor for the ways in which we have come to experience contemporary culture through a network of local, national, transnational and global connections, the familiar and the exotic, the new and the old.
It is clever on a lot of different levels, but it tells us that most of how we understand ourselves and of the world around us comes through 'unofficial' forms of knowledge - storytelling. (less)

like · see review

Jan 22, 2013 Jennifer rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mine, historical-fiction

A Possible Life is is described as a "novel in five parts." It is true that there are five distinct stories. The first, set in 1938 is about an English school teacher who goes off to war and returns changed, but is somehow able to make peace with that change and carry on with his life, however lonely it may be. The second is set in 1859 and tells the story of a boy who is sent to the workhouse by his parents. He eventually makes his way out of the workhouse and becomes successful. This was my fa...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 21, 2013 Hannah Green rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: signed-and-dedicated, twentyfirst-century

This book posed numerous problems for me, particularly having spent many weeks prior to its release reading through his other novels.

I felt, on the whole, that this was a book far too close to its predecessor Human Traces. They both approach similar themes, existentialism and the nature of humanity, but I felt A Possible Life did this with far less subtlety. Instead of the extended prose which made the reader pose questions to themselves, here Faulks wrote them for you, with the text serving the...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 07, 2013 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories

Five short stories, but not a novel. An object in one story appears in another, or there's a passing reference to the same place. More than one character feels guilty when a new love affair edges out a lover who did nothing wrong, and more than one character shuts him- or herself off from love altogether. There seems to be some theme about how we're all just recycled matter, but this isn't a book about past lives or rebirth. Really, each story and each character stands alone (so the subtitle puz...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 03, 2013 Shweta rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: european, family-issues, got-an-arc-to-review, short-stories, will-be-reading-again

My experience with short stories is minimum. Though once or twice a year, I make an effort to get through some of the books in my collection, my love for a full formed novel takes over. This year I had the opportunity of reading short stories/ novellas by two well established writers. First one was somewhere in October ‘Artist of Disappearance by Anita Desai and now at the end of the 2012 I am here just having finished Sabastian Faulks ‘ A Possible Life‘. Well, what a book?

Let me just put this s...more My experience with short stories is minimum. Though once or twice a year, I make an effort to get through some of the books in my collection, my love for a full formed novel takes over. This year I had the opportunity of reading short stories/ novellas by two well established writers. First one was somewhere in October ‘Artist of Disappearance by Anita Desai and now at the end of the 2012 I am here just having finished Sabastian Faulks ‘ A Possible Life‘. Well, what a book?

Let me just put this straight for those who prefer to know a little about the book before they delve into it. Its not a complete novel, but that’s just me saying. Its a book with five stories from different time periods with characters who are as different from one another as one can be but here and there we find something that reminds us of the other story in the collection. The connection is elusive and as far as I am concerned totally unnecessary. For all that I care they are really great stories on their own.

If an author gives you more than one story in a book you are bound to talk about the one you liked the most and I think mine would be the first one. Geoffrey’s story was the one that stayed with me long after I finished reading the book.

Faulks walks us through World War II period in Geoffery Talbot’s piece. He finds himself fighting to survive in the Nazi Concentration Camp and not happily playing cricket as he had expected of his life initially. A cruel twist of fate and his life is turned in to a nightmare. I haven’t ever taken anything that is written after the words “concentration camp’ lightly. Fiction, documentaries and history textbooks have taught us not to. We might not have been a witness to that period but we do understand the impact it had on lives. Hence worrying was natural with the emergence of that theme. However ,needless was my worry as Faulks is a nuanced author who knows how to handle difficult themes. Geoffery’s story was unsettling but it was the one that I would say affected me the most as a reader.

After Geoffery’s it was Anya’s story that I enjoyed reading. It is again a reflection of fine penmanship. Anya’s section had music and it had love, the unconditional type that brings pain when thought about. It talks about loss and how much is sacrifice worth. If you are a music lover you would dig this one. Each story has a central theme and Faulks chalks out a boundary and gets painting the characters.

Grab the book and give it a try.

Source: Review Copy from Random House India(less)

1 like · like · see review

Jan 04, 2013 Kiwiflora rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well, I must be a bit thick or something but I really did not get the purpose of this 'novel'. I have always thought of a 'novel' as a long story with a plot and characters that are linked in some sort of organised and sequential manner. This book meets the 'long' and 'characters' requirements, but other than four very small and tenuous links the five parts have nothing to do with each other. I kept waiting and waiting for the connections to show themselves, got to the very last page and still n...more Well, I must be a bit thick or something but I really did not get the purpose of this 'novel'. I have always thought of a 'novel' as a long story with a plot and characters that are linked in some sort of organised and sequential manner. This book meets the 'long' and 'characters' requirements, but other than four very small and tenuous links the five parts have nothing to do with each other. I kept waiting and waiting for the connections to show themselves, got to the very last page and still nothing. So, like a number of other reviewers have done, perhaps it is better to read this book as five short stories penned by a master of the writing game.

Because, I loved reading these five stories. Mr Faulkes is an exquisite story teller, creating five very different stories, with five diverse leading players, and five very different voices. Ranging from 1800s rural France, to Victorian London, Trieste in 2029, World War II and 1970s America, we meet respectively Jeanne, an illiterate peasant girl who spends her life working for a middle class family; Billy, who spends most of his childhood in a workhouse, but finds this start in life ends up being to his advantage; Elena, a brilliant scientist, whose life is dominated by a peculiar Catherine/Heathcliffe childhood; Geoffrey, a mild-mannered sport mad school teacher who finds himself betrayed to the Germans, then sent to a concentration camp to do unspeakable things; and finally Jack, an almost-aging rocker who 'discovers' a musical prodigy and launches her into fame and fortune, but at a cost.

All these stories then, are about life, none of them very happy lives really, but that perhaps is the secret to the success of these stories. The author gets right under the skin of his characters, into their very souls as they try to deal with what life is throwing at them. Some thought is given at times by the characters as to what would have happened if a different decision had been made, as I am sure most of us wonder about from time to time. But the business of living takes a lot of energy and so these thoughts simply remain that.

For some stories this works better than others. I really don't get the story of Elena who, with a fellow scientist discovers the bit in the brain that enables human beings to feel, empathise, foresee their own deaths - all things apparently that animals don't consciously think about; and the story about Jeanne which hops from present to past to present to past again, even on a second reading is just plain puzzling. But the stories about Geoffrey, Billy and in particular Jack are very good. They are very insightful into that bit of the brain that deals in empathy, making connections and being human, all helped along by Mr Faulkes' great writing.

So, don't read this book as a novel - you will do your head in, but read it as five stand alone stories about people dealing with what life throws at them. And revel in the writing that gives such insight into the human condition. (less)

1 like · like · see review

Jan 03, 2013 Al rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A collection of five stories about individuals (two men and three women) living in different times (18th to 21st centuries). I think the idea is that we should see that the human condition transcends time, class and gender. If there are common elements in these stories, one of them might be that no matter how much one tries to pursue rational goals in life (and one's definition of what's rational varies with class and education), at the end of the day (read: end of life), one may be left with t...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 16, 2012 Mac rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

How to rate this book?

Part One, Geoffrey 1938, was disappointing; it felt rushed, a chronology without life or distinction, and the field of the Holocaust has been plowed many times before. In contrast, Part Five, Anya 1971, was compelling, emotionally touching, and intellectually stimulating. Part Five's success was somewhat due to this part's resonance with the ideas in the preceding parts, but mostly it was due to a fascinating central character, Anya, and an insightful heart broken narrator...more

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 29, 2012 Veronica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, kindle

This bears little resemblance to Sebastian Faulks' "big" books, like Engleby or Charlotte Gray. It's five (very) loosely linked novellas (linked more by theme than content), set in times ranging from the mid-19th century to the mid-21st. Although short, in each case they encompass the main character's whole life. As such they lack the intensity and detail that I associate with Faulks, and I didn't get fully absorbed in the stories. The third story, set in the near future, was particularly weak a...more

like · see review

Oct 31, 2012 Nadine Millar rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: best-all-time-ever, multimedia

Is there such a thing as a soul? If not, what makes us so certain than the lives we lead and the identities we inhabit are even relevant? Do you ever wonder, for example, what would have happened if you'd taken that road, instead of this one? And is it possible to know which one, of all the dozens of decisions we make every day, will be the one whose significance will echo on down for generations to come?

These are the melancholy questions that permeate Sebastian Faulks' new book, "A Possible Li...more

14 likes · like · see review

Feb 05, 2013 maven rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1930s, 1940s, british, fiction, europe, historical-fiction, france, library-book, war, wwii, attempted-but-quit

I read the first part of this five-part novel, but I was somewhat disappointed and ended up quitting altogether.

The first part (Geoffrey) started off ok, though it felt a bit flat to me; the story meandered a bit, skipping ahead in small chunks. Then there was a big change in the story -- which was both predictable and unbelievable at the same time -- and we're whisked off to a different setting. This got more intense, albeit in a rather sloppy way, with things happening without much basis or d...more

like · see review

Nov 23, 2012 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Can you not be sure of what's going on and still like a book?

The packaging of "A Possible Life" hints at something other than a collection of short stories: "A Novel in Five Parts."

After a pleasurable once-through, highwayscribery is not exactly sure what binds these otherwise tasty tales together.

In the fifth and final piece the narrator dwells on what might represent a common thread/unifying principle to the work under scrutiny here.

"I was almost sixty years old, but I didn't understand anythi...more

2 likes · like · see review

Oct 30, 2012 Jill rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A Possible Life is comprised of five stories – five lives – that are tied together not through the characters or plotting, but through time, space and connections.

Had I reviewed after reading the first tale – set in 1938 and focused on Geoffrey Talbot – I may have very well given this book just 3 stars. The story of a middling man who ends up veering from the career course his father had hoped for and eventually ends up being betrayed to the Gestapo while on a mission at first seemed archetypal...more A Possible Life is comprised of five stories – five lives – that are tied together not through the characters or plotting, but through time, space and connections.

Had I reviewed after reading the first tale – set in 1938 and focused on Geoffrey Talbot – I may have very well given this book just 3 stars. The story of a middling man who ends up veering from the career course his father had hoped for and eventually ends up being betrayed to the Gestapo while on a mission at first seemed archetypal and evocative. The unspeakable horrors of the concentration camp are powerfully told, but it almost seems as if the reader has read these descriptions before.

It soon becomes clear, though, that this is Sebastian Faulks’ focal point: communal memory. As readers, we know these stories: the man who survives Gestapo atrocities and seeks to regain his ordinary life…the Dickensian orphan Billy in Victorian London who survives through sheer force of character…the brilliant scientist who struggles with the big questions of life and love…the simpleminded and devout orphan Jeanne in rural France… and the skinny, long-haired American singer who leverages her life for her art.

All of these characters are intimately familiar to us. The joy of reading this book is unearthing the connections between such disparate characters. Over and over again, details resonate, pricking our minds with the question, “Where have I heard this before?” For example, Geoffrey Talbot will enter a French farmhouse where he is ultimately betrayed; a century earlier, the peasant Jeanne will also have confronted a betrayal. Orphaned Jeanne will be reduced to sleeping on a mat of straw; years later, Billy Webb, another orphan, will be forced to make his bed on a mat of straw at a workhouse. And that workhouse? The songwriter Anya King, in the 1970s, will consider purchasing a flat in that Victorian workhouse where Billy once lived. And so on.

“I don’t think you ever understand your life – not till it’s finished and probably not then either,” Billy reflects. Later, the scientist Elena, thinks, “If not just the brain but the quirks that made the individual from uncomposed matter only, it was hard to be sure where the edges of one such being ended and another began.”

Life, Sebastian Faulks suggest, is difficult to fathom without consideration of our shared memory, the way we interconnect with those who came before and will come after us, and how all our lives fit into some vast unknowable puzzle. This is, I believe, truly a brilliant book. Jack – who narrates the songwriter Anya’s section – may have said it best: “The events and sensations, the stories and the things that make me what I am in the eyes of other people, the list of facts that make my life…They could be mine, they might be yours.”

(less)

17 likes · like · see review

Oct 29, 2012 Cynthia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2012

How does the brain work?

After starting this book I put my life on hold. I was hooked from the beginning. The book is a conglomeration of five people’s stories. Some stories are stronger than others but the best ones are wonderful. They’re set mostly in Europe with one taking place in New York and Los Angeles. Anya’s story is about a girl’s rise to fame in the folk/pop scene of the 1970’s. It reads like a dream yet a dream based in reality because it felt musically and emotionally deadly accurate...more

13 likes · like · see review

Dec 21, 2012 Meg Adams rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Five transporting stories and five unforgettable live, linked across centuries!

In Second World War Poland, a young prisoner closes his eyes and pictures going to bat on a sunlit English cricket ground.

Across the yard of a Victorian poorhouse, a man is too ashamed to acknowledge the son he gave away.

In a 19th-century French village, an old servant understands—suddenly and with awe—the meaning of the Bible story her master is reading to her.

On a summer evening in the Catskills in 1971, a skinny g...more

3 likes · like · see review

Sep 30, 2012 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am a huge fan of Sebastian Faulks, so was very much looking forward to this book. Like others on this forum I was slightly concerned that it was several stories rather than an entire novel, however while the links of each story are tenuous this did not detract from my overall enjoyment of the book, which overall was a very contemplative read.

All five stories are good, but for my money the vaguely sci-fi 'Everything Can Be Explained' was the most moving and 'You Next Time' the most enthralling...more

4 likes · like · see review

Sep 22, 2012 Rebecca Cartwright rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Review
Sebastian Faulks is an author who I find to be a bit hit and miss. Rather like Ian McEwen I always find his books to be well written but sometimes I don’t find the stories or characters to be that engaging. Unfortunately I found this book to be more hit than miss.
Before reading this book I hadn’t read anything about it and so didn’t know that it was a series of stories rather than a novel. It was only when I got to the third story that I realised that it was a book of short stories rather...more

3 likes · like · see review

Feb 10, 2013 Monica rated it 1 of 5 stars

What a disappointing book for me. I've enjoyed two other Faulks' book. This one left me wondering where the real Faulks had gone. It left me wondering...why?? did I read this! And why write this? I didn't know when I started reading that this is a collection of five stories. Or I might not have even started. The first four stories were detailed about the youth of the characters and their lives. Then rushed through to the end to make a point. With what seemed like a little sermon at the finish. T...more

like · see review

Dec 23, 2012 Dem rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A possible Life by Sebastian Fauls is a NOVEL IN FIVE PARTS.

This is actually a collection of five stories which I wish I had known before I read this Novel.(Not stated on the front cover of novel that I purchased).

I had read three of the stories before I realised that this was a collection of short/longish stories ranging from 40 pages to just under a 100 pages. The stories span continents, centuries and subject matter, some I liked and others I did not enjoy at all.

The first story while I foun...more

7 likes · like · see review

Oct 11, 2012 Jolene rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: elle-readers-club

Really enjoyed this book. Faulks is a gifted writer. I want to read more of his work!

"Geoffrey" stands-out as the best piece of contemporary literature I've read this year. "The Lobster Mafia Story" by Anna Solomon (put out by One City, One Story--Boston) ranks second. And Emma Donghue's "Counting the Days" would be my third-place pick.

After reading "Billy", I noted that Faulks lays down pain tenderly. His work can portray something deeply sad, yet the writing is a joy to read.

**CRITICISM**
I sh...more

like · see review

Mar 12, 2013 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really liked reading this book. The fact that it is subtitled "a novel in five parts" was intriguing to me. I love novels that are linked stories, novels such as Olive Kitteredge. This is nothing like Olive. The connections between these stories are embedded in the themes of individual stories themselves. I think the subtle way each of these stories pushes us to think about our own "Possible Lives" is brilliant. I know I'm holding back and I probably need to write a review and label it as cont...more

like · see review

Nov 13, 2012 Kasa Cotugno rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: vine, genre-short-stories

It is unclear at first why this book of 5 disparate stories, set in different times on different continents with varying main characters, has been described as a novel. 'There does not appear to be any communal connection, as in, say Cloud Atlas. Only at the end will all the parts dovetail in surprising ways. The main characters do share certain qualities -- isolation, societal outsiders, content in their solitude. They are not psychopathically xenophobic, and will react to others. But they all...more

like · see review

Oct 14, 2012 Steven Pilling rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club

Not a novel really rather 5 separate stories about love or about emotion. Like any book of multiple stories the standard varies massively i could live without ever reading part 4 again whilst part 1 and 2 were harrowing in different ways.
What Faulks does well is he illustrates the transitory nature of life, in part 5 the narrator is passive to a almost ridiculous extent, he essentially forgoes his own life to support someone else, he is often guilty of cowardice especially in his relationships b...more

like · see review

Mar 17, 2013 Stephen Doig rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Certain novels, especially the most exceptional ones, have a delightful way of burrowing into your consciousness and lingering there. Days or perhaps even weeks after having turned the final page, the story remains with you. Creeping back into your thoughts in idle moments. For this reader, only a few works of fiction per year fall into the 'naggingly memorable' category. Acclaimed British author Sebastian Faulks' latest novel A Possible Life being a particularly good recent example.

I finished t...more Certain novels, especially the most exceptional ones, have a delightful way of burrowing into your consciousness and lingering there. Days or perhaps even weeks after having turned the final page, the story remains with you. Creeping back into your thoughts in idle moments. For this reader, only a few works of fiction per year fall into the 'naggingly memorable' category. Acclaimed British author Sebastian Faulks' latest novel A Possible Life being a particularly good recent example.

I finished this remarkable book four weeks ago, and everything I've read consequently seems to pale in comparison. A Possible Life has an intriguing format, one that I found worked extremely well. The book is actually comprised of five novellas – each longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. At this length, the characters in these five very different stories, or, 'possible lives', feel fully resolved yet never outstay their welcome. In one novella, an ordinary young cricket-lover named Geoffrey returns home profoundly changed after enduring the living nightmare of a German concentration camp in WW2 Poland. Another, set in 2029, follows the life of Elena, a brilliant young Italian neuroscientist conducting groundbreaking research into higher consciousness, yet grappling with the nature of intimacy and her own complex interior life. Elsewhere in A Possible Life, we meet a French peasant who experiences a religious awakening, a young boy being raised in a grim Victorian workhouse, and a captivating singer-songwriter trying to navigate the American recording industry of the 1970's without compromising her identity or beliefs.

If there is a unifying theme amongst these varied stories, it is surely about the importance of connection – genuine connection - and the risks we are prepared to take in our lives striving to find it. Throughout A Possible Life, Sebastian Faulks' pleasingly understated prose expertly captures those brief but essential moments of human kindness, hope or love that help to bind us and bring meaning into our lives.

Beautifully written, understated and highly readable, A Possible Life demands to be revisited.(less)

like · see review

Feb 02, 2013 Sam Sattler rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-novel

Despite being clearly labeled on its cover as a “novel in five parts,” A Possible Life could just as easily have been called a short story collection or a group of short novellas. Most readers, I suspect, will consider the book to be a collection of interrelated short stories.

Each of the book’s five stories, or parts, is titled with the name and time period of its central character, and they are presented in this order: Geoffrey, 1938; Billy, 1859; Elena, 2029; Jeanne, 1822; and Anya, 1971. The...more Despite being clearly labeled on its cover as a “novel in five parts,” A Possible Life could just as easily have been called a short story collection or a group of short novellas. Most readers, I suspect, will consider the book to be a collection of interrelated short stories.

Each of the book’s five stories, or parts, is titled with the name and time period of its central character, and they are presented in this order: Geoffrey, 1938; Billy, 1859; Elena, 2029; Jeanne, 1822; and Anya, 1971. The first two stories are set in England, the others in Italy, France, and the United States.
In each of his tales, Faulks takes his central character from relative youth to old age, describing a lifetime during which seemingly innocuous decisions made by them and others will determine which of their “possible lives” will become reality.

Geoffrey Talbot, bored with his life after university, decides to enlist in the British Army, allowing him to cross paths with the French woman who will haunt the rest of his days. Given up by his family because they could not afford to feed all their children, Billy Webb spends his youth in an orphanage/poorhouse where he meets the two little girls with whom he will grow old. Decades after Elena’s father returns from a business trip with an orphan boy he wants to adopt, she finally learns the truth about the love of her life. Jeanne, said to be “the most ignorant person” in her rural French village, makes a difficult choice that will ultimately define who she is. And, finally, Anya, an extremely talented singer-songwriter must make painful decisions if she is to survive the 1970s American music scene.

Faulks presents his premise that all human beings are connected, tenuous as those links might be, by referencing the tiniest of details. Sometimes a physical object moves from one story to another, at other times the descendent of an earlier character appears in a later story, or a reference to the future made in one story comes true in a second. The psychological impact of the connections is often increased by the very subtleness of the references.

Novel, or not, A Possible Life is definitely memorable. Sebastian Faulks fans should be pleased with it, and readers new to the author’s work will likely want to read his earlier work after reading this one. They might even begin to wonder about their own possible lives – and which one they might end up with.
(less)

like · see review

Apr 07, 2013 J.M. Leitch rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A Possible Life is a collection of 5 compelling, stand-alone stories connected by the fragile thread of that almost indefinable essence of man, human consciousness. Set in 5 different eras, with one in the near future, the 5 lives Sebastian Faulks describes are all very different, yet share the underlying randomness that defines all our lives and which causes them to pan out the way they do. Recurring themes like war, love, loss, relationships, loving two people at the same time, punctuate the s...more A Possible Life is a collection of 5 compelling, stand-alone stories connected by the fragile thread of that almost indefinable essence of man, human consciousness. Set in 5 different eras, with one in the near future, the 5 lives Sebastian Faulks describes are all very different, yet share the underlying randomness that defines all our lives and which causes them to pan out the way they do. Recurring themes like war, love, loss, relationships, loving two people at the same time, punctuate the stories and build connections between them.

Faulks duplicates certain elements in different stories… the midden and the chained dog, the plaster Madonna, the game of cricket, the workhouse, a monastery in France, a cabin in the hills of California, both a story and a song titled Another Life… which I interpret as material symbols to illustrate the nature of shared consciousness.

“I don’t feel I’m the same person as the kid who walked across the park to school each day. I saw an article in the paper the other day that said at my age I’d have no cells or whatever in common with that small boy. Maybe someone else has his cells now.” Freddy/Jack says in the last story, Part V - You Next Time.

Although the characters are finely drawn and the stories of their lives beautifully told causing the reader to dig deep in order to work out the points that Faulks wants to get across, when I turned the final page I felt there was something missing. But then again, perhaps not. Perhaps all I needed was to revisit Part III - Everything Can Be Explained and re-read the following passage:

“Knowing one was comprised of recycled matter only and that selfhood was a delusion did not take away the aching of the heart.
And the odd thing was, Elena now admitted… she herself was one of those who carried on as though the work she had published did not exist. She knew it to be truthful, valid and endlessly provable, but she didn’t allow the implications to affect the way she lived.”

Or, in other words – nothing can be explained.
(less)

like · see review

Apr 18, 2013 Rob Jinkerson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I am torn about this book. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was really good, but I feels like there was something missing. The book is in five parts, each following a different person's life. Each individual story was very well written, and I found myself connecting with the new characters very easily. I think the idea is that you read these characters stories and picture yourself in that situation, to quote the blurb 'feel your heart beat in someone else's life'. Now, while I got really into ea...more

like · see review

Oct 12, 2012 Alison Kennedy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I can't stop thinking about this book. It really got under my skin and affected me (which really is the mark of a good book in my opinion).

Initially I was very pleased that it was five different stories because I do love a short and snappy tale. Even better than that was that the tales often had small points of overlap. And by small I mean that an object or place would feature in more than one tale and is basically the point of our lives all being interconnected in even the smallest way.

The fi...more I can't stop thinking about this book. It really got under my skin and affected me (which really is the mark of a good book in my opinion).

Initially I was very pleased that it was five different stories because I do love a short and snappy tale. Even better than that was that the tales often had small points of overlap. And by small I mean that an object or place would feature in more than one tale and is basically the point of our lives all being interconnected in even the smallest way.

The first tale is certainly not for the feint hearted - my initial impression was that it was going to be very British-twee but actually there was a great deal more substance to it than I first thought. It is brutal and there is no way around that but it had this impact on me that wasn't entirely focused on my feelings at some of the grittier parts.

The second tale is also similarly bleak at parts (although not as bad) but bizarrely both have this kind of peace at points. They both did have me thinking about what our lives mean though and what real contentment is and do we ever really know what we are doing. I always assumed that wisdom and contentment came with age but perhaps not so much. There's not necessarily the 'happy ending' element to these tales. Tale three wasn't quite as strong at first for me but that sure changed half way through and I ended up loving it. Although, again, themes of loneliness and just making do with the hand you are dealt in life.

I think I missed the point in tale 4 - I really enjoyed it but the last section to it seemed to be making a point that I felt a wee bit but wasn't as 'wow' as in the previous stories. The fifth and final story was beautiful, tragic, confused and again felt like the characters got to a point where they settled for a life that was shadow of the life they had lived at one point. Loneliness pervades this novel yet the characters don't come across as isolated and lonely - just not fulfilled in the way they should be.

Faulks writes beautifully and the way he writes across five tales with diverse characters, eras, tone of voice, etc is seamless. You still feel a consistency across the stories without feeling that the authenticity of the characters and narrator is compromised if each tale was read in isolation from the others.(less)

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (18)

More editions...

Genres

Historical Fiction

22 users

Book Club

9 users

Short Stories

8 users

History > World War II

4 users

Novels

4 users

European Literature > British Literature

4 users

Contemporary

3 users

Cultural > France

3 users

War

3 users

Cultural > Poland

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Sebastian Faulks

Faulks is the son of Pamela (Lawless) and Peter Ronald Faulks, a Berkshire solicitor who later became a judge. He grew up in Newbury. His mother was both cultured and highly strung. She introduced him to reading and music at a young age. Her own mother, from whom she was estranged, had been an actress in repertory. His father was a company commander in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment, in which h...more Faulks is the son of Pamela (Lawless) and Peter Ronald Faulks, a Berkshire solicitor who later became a judge. He grew up in Newbury. His mother was both cultured and highly strung. She introduced him to reading and music at a young age. Her own mother, from whom she was estranged, had been an actress in repertory. His father was a company commander in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment, in which he served from 1939 to 1946. He saw action in Holland, France, Tunisia, Italy (at the Anzio landings), Syria and Palestine. He was wounded three times and awarded an immediate MC after an action against the Hermann Goering Parachute Troops in North Africa in 1942.
His maternal grandfather, Philip Henry Lawless, enlisted in the 1st Battalion, 28th county of London Regiment, otherwise known as The Artists' Rifles in 1914, and served in trench warfare on the Western Front until 1917, when he moved to the 26th Battalion Middlesex Regiment and finished the war in Salonika. He was decorated several times and received the Military Cross in 1918, the standard Victory Medal, the British War Medal and the 1914 Star. He eventually left the Army and returned to work as a wine merchant - his father's original occupation.[2]
His paternal grandfather, Major James Faulks (Major was his name, not a military rank) was an accountant who had previously worked as a schoolmaster at a private boarding school in Tunbridge Wells, while Major's provisions merchant father, William Robert Faulks, supplied dairy products in late Victorian Paddington.[2]
Faulks' father wanted him to become a diplomat. He claims his first ambition was to be a taxi driver until at the age of fifteen, while reading George Orwell, he decided to become a novelist instead. In fact, he is the only member of his paternal family not to be a lawyer; his father and uncle were judges and his brother Edward is a QC specialising in medical negligence.
Faulks was educated at the fee-charging Wellington College and studied English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he won an open exhibition and to which he was elected an honorary fellow in 2007. He took a teaching job at the Dwight-Franklin International School after university while also moving into journalism, becoming a features writer for the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, and was recruited by the Independent as Literary Editor in 1986. He became the Deputy Editor of the Independent on Sunday before leaving in 1991 to concentrate on writing. He has been a columnist for The Guardian (1992-8) and The Evening Standard (1997-9).
He continues to contribute articles and reviews to a number of newspapers and magazines and to broadcast regularly. He wrote and presented the Channel 4 series Churchill's Secret Army, about the wartime Special Operations Executive (SOE), screened in 1999. Faulks is a team captain on BBC Radio 4's literary quiz The Write Stuff.
Faulks lives with his wife, Veronica (formerly his assistant at The Independent), and their three children William, Holly and Arthur . He works from his study in a top floor flat of a house near Holland Park Avenue, ten minutes from his home, starting work at 10am and finishing at 6pm, regardless of whether he is writing a book or not.
He was appointed a CBE in the Birthday Honours List 2002 for "services to Literature" and he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1994.
Faulks supports West Ham United. He writes about this in "Upton and Other Parks," a contribution to the 1990 football book Saturday's Boys.

From Wikipedia (less)

More about Sebastian Faulks...

Books by Sebastian Faulks

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About A Possible Life: ...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from A Possible Life: A Nov...

“If not just the brain but the quirks that made the individual were composed of recycled matter only, it was hard to be sure where the edges of one such being ended and another person began.” — 5 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: A Possible Life
avg rating	preview: A Possible Life Goodreads rating: 3.43 (950 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13642657-a-possible-life?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344369350l/13642657.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13642657-a-possible-life?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]A Possible Life by Sebastian Faulks[/url]

A Possible Life

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website