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 found interesting it lacked character development and I found myself disconnected from the stories in this way many times. I also thought the sense of time and place was poorly written and nothing like Faulk's other novels. When I would put this book down for a few hours I found it very difficult when picking it up again to remember what I had read previously.

Having said that I did like story 1 and 3 but overall a 2 star read for me. Perhaps if you are a fan of short stories you will engage better with this book than I did. ( )

Book 222 A Possible Life Sebastian Faulks.
Loaned to me by Lesley Baldwin . It might have helped if I had realised that this is a book of 5 stories. I have done this before. Waiting for them to somehow join up which they don't because it's 5 separate stories so in my head there's never an "end" at the end of the first 4 stories. I get very close to the last page before I realise and have a sense of disappointment. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the stories but I had an expectation that wasn't met. Plus I enjoyed Birdsong much more. 6/10 ( )

5 engaging stories about connectedness, continuity, and what it means to be human. ( )

I should have guessed from the title that this book was in fact five short stories rather than just one. I did enjoy it but as someone who doesn't generally like short stories I was rather annoyed by the sudden separation. It has however persuaded me to read more of Mr Faulks' works. ( )

Short stories about ordinary people keeping silent about their extraordinary lives:

A quiet schoolteacher who aids the Resistance and is imprisoned in a Nazi deathcamp.

A servant who doesn’t want to learn, barely feels, and offers to work without pay to belong somewhere.

A man living in a workhouse, his wife put in an institution, he starts a family with her sister, & after 19 years wife is released and they all share the same house. His gift to his children is never to talk of his harsh upbringing.

Elena, a lonely scientist researching into human awareness. Loving the boy her father fostered, then becoming aware he is probably her half-brother.

A musician falls in love with a singer-songwriter. She leaves & he feels she paid a heavy price ‘to feel your heart beat in someone else’s life’. He feels he is like an actor, playing a part he has never mastered.

The stories confirm that we can at times know someone else’s experiences, perhaps through reading or love step for a moment in their shoes, feel your heart beat in someone else’s life, imagine playing that part, but can never truly know that person. ( )