The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer

Belinda Bauer delivers a master class in plot, character and theme in her latest book The Impossible Thing. The story itself centres around the practice of egg collecting from the early twentieth century through to the present day.

In 1920s Yorkshire, a group of climmers (sic) are lowered down the Bempton Cliffs to collect the colourful eggs of guillemots and other seabirds that are then on sold to wealthy collectors in London. One small cliffside farm, where six-year-old Celie Sheppard lives, has an overhang which prevents the easy collection of eggs. But Celie finds a way down the cliffface and in doing so discovers a rare red egg which changes her and her family’s fortunes. In the present day a young man, Patrick Fort, is helping his neighbour Nick who was had a break in where the only thing stolen was a red egg in an ornate box. Nick had found the boxed egg in the attic and was trying to sell it on Ebay for ten pounds. In trying to recover the egg, the two soon learn there is much more to it and its history than they could have imagined and that the obsession with eggs is still alive and well.

Bauer spins a complex interleaved tale out of the lives of Celie and Patrick. Stories that swirl around each other with layered revelations right through to the final pages. In the historical sections, this story is as much about the jockeying between entitled wealthy men for prestige as it is about Celie. In the present day story, Bauer takes readers into the still ongoing world of egg collection – introducing Patrick and Nick to both their collectors and their protectors. In the middle of this tale is the delightfully drawn neurodiverse character of Patrick, who looks at the world slightly askance. But Patrick makes a great team when paired with with the more worldly Nick.

Belinda Bauer is an author who has not only won the CWA Gold Dagger for crime fiction but has been longlisted for the Booker Prize (for Snap). The Impossible Thing is a crime novel of sorts – there is plenty of crime on display. But it is much more than this – an exploration of a little known obsession and the people who made a living feeding that obsession, consideration of issues of conservation versus acquisitiveness, a rags to riches tale centred on a delightful young woman and also more than a bit of a caper as a pair of not particularly savvy young men try their own hand at crime solving. Overall The Impossible Thing is a delight that succeeds on every level.

The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer

9

9.0/10