This Impossible Life: A Literary Saga of Two Siblings Bound by Love Across Continents and Decades by Chinelo Okparanta (Hardcover) (PREORDER)

Fiction - Literary - World Literature - Africa - Nigeria - Psychological - Family Life - Siblings 

RELEASE DATE: 11/10/2026 (WILL SHIP DIRECTLY FROM OUR SUPPLIER'S WAREHOUSE)

“Okparanta is a truth-teller and soothsayer.” —Tayari Jones

From the acclaimed author of Under the Udala Trees, a profoundly moving, unforgettable new epic following the aftermath of one catastrophic moment in the lives of two siblings.

Eleven-year-old Alohan and his four-year-old sister Ivie are the children of a rainmaker, who performs elaborate rituals to bring or hold back the rain. One day, the rainmaker's luck runs out: it pours on the wrong person’s wedding, and the repercussions for him and for his wife who accompanies him to the wedding are deadly.

Orphaned and alone, Alohan is quickly forced into an early adulthood, charged with providing for and protecting Ivie. The two siblings become each other’s entire worlds, bound by loss and loyalty. But just as they begin to build a life for themselves, a lapse of judgment leaves them entangled with a wealthy couple’s nefarious scheme. The two are set on drastically different paths, constricted by the ruthlessness of those who hold great power and privilege, and those who are underfoot – who must, and will, do anything merely to survive. What unfolds is an incredible journey of crime and betrayal, misunderstanding and misfortune, spanning continents and decades: from Nigeria to the United States to Italy, and from the homes of the wealthy elites, to those of the destitute—crossing paths, at each turn, with those who steal, con, and traffic in lives.

At the novel’s heart is the love between Alohan and Ivie. Told with captivating force, insight, and compassion, This Impossible Life is a gripping saga of two siblings’ survival, and of whether the love that binds them will be enough to overcome the most unforgiving of fates.

AUTHOR BIO: 

CHINELO OKPARANTA was born and raised in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Her debut short story collection, Happiness, Like Water, was nominated for the Nigerian Writers Award, long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and was a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, as well as the Etisalat Prize for Literature. Her first novel, Under the Udala Trees, was nominated for numerous awards, including the Kirkus Prize and Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and was a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice. She has published work in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, the Kenyon Review, AGNI, and other venues, and was named one of Granta's Best of Young American Novelists. She received her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and she is currently Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Swarthmore College.

"This Impossible Life is an epic account of global forces twisting the fates of two young siblings. A novel about crime and migration and injustice, punishment and impunity, and also care and devotion. Every moment felt real and lived--and so consequential--that I simply could not put the book down. Chinelo Okparanta is a masterful storyteller; a wise and urgent voice in these impossible times."
--Justin Torres, author of Blackouts and We the Animals

"These siblings, their truths, the lines those truths ride, the images that illuminate them, all distilled into a novel that will stay with me a long time. Who do we belong to and why? How can we know? How do we outsmart those who would harm us? Two siblings survive the death of their parents and offer no final answers here in Okparanta's newest novel, but she gives us answers to hold close until then, in this wise, whip-smart, shrewd novel about those who have determined to live, not just survive."
--Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

"This Impossible Life is a fiercely compassionate exploration of complicated familial ties, longing, intertwined fates, and thrilling second chances. In this sensitive page-turner of a novel, Chinelo Okparanta proves herself to be one of our finest chroniclers of the inner lives of everyday people, illuminating truths about what it means to be human."
­--Angela Flournoy, author of The Wilderness and The Turner House

"An affecting story of sibling love and loyalty, and a bond so strong it survives time and continents."
--Laila Lalami, author of The Dream Hotel