Off the coast of Spain lies the island of Ibiza. Septuagenarian, Grace Winters is bequeathed a house there by a fellow schoolteacher she helped over 40 years previously. She vaguely remembers the woman, Christina, but can’t understand why she’s been given this house. Her life in England is stultifying: she’s widowed and lost her only child, Daniel, to an accident for which she blames herself. To try to break free from her dead-end existence, she flies to Ibiza to see the house. There begins an extraordinary experience.
The house is no palace, but contains a jar of seawater which seems to replenish itself. Grace hears of the mysterious disappearance of Christina at sea. She meets Christina’s friend, Alberto, who takes her diving near the vertiginous rock, Es Vedrà, to show her where Christina disappeared. Sea grass covers the ocean floor and hovering above it is a luminous, spherical cloud which reaches out to Grace. This cloud, called La Presencia, is described by Alberto as an alien life form.
La Presencia gifts/curses Grace with a suite of preternatural skills: telepathy, telekinesis, mind-reading and precognition. Christina felt that Grace was the right person to receive these skills, because they’ll be needed to fight off billionaire developer, Art Butler, who will stop at nothing to build a resort on Es Vedrà.
Grace narrates this story via email to a former student, Maurice. Haig utilises a clever narrative structure: he tells the reader to keep an open mind by having Grace give Maurice that precise instruction. So … please do suspend your disbelief and strap in for a wild ride.
Reviewed by Bob Moore
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matt Haig is an author for children and adults. His memoir Reasons to Stay Alive was a number one bestseller, staying in the British top ten for 46 weeks. His children’s book A Boy Called Christmas was a runaway hit and is translated in over 40 languages. It is being made into a film starring Maggie Smith, Sally Hawkins and Jim Broadbent and The Guardian called it an ‘instant classic’. His novels for adults include the award-winning How To Stop Time, The Radleys, The Humans and the number one bestseller The Midnight Library.
He has sold over three million books worldwide.
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