A woman must learn to step through time and space to save her infant son in The Possibilities, an ambitious, mind-bending sci-fi thriller by Yael Goldstein-Love (The Passion of Tasha Darsky).
Hannah's insistence on a C-section in the delivery room saved the life of her baby, Jack, but her days with her new son are haunted by the "car-swerve" feeling that another possibility scraped the edge of their lives. She can't shake the image of Jack blue and unable to breathe. Her husband, Adam, calls this nagging feeling her "Jewish Mother Overdrive," but to Hannah it feels more like a memory she shouldn't have.
Hours after Adam broadsides her with an early-morning divorce announcement, Hannah walks away from Jack's stroller for a moment and returns to find him gone. A frantic search ends when she discovers him right where she left him, apparently having never moved.
Hannah worries she's developing a mental illness similar to the one that took her mother from her, worries that intensify when she finds herself transported from her kitchen to a hiking trail. The apparent hallucination comes complete with a new set of memories of Jack having died at birth and a same-yet-not Adam who has no plans to leave her. It leaves behind physical sensations as though it really happened. Then Jack disappears, and people around her begin to forget he ever lived. Hannah has to wonder if she's experiencing a break with reality or a genuine phenomenon. Even if she can step between parallel realities, where has Jack gone? And what will she sacrifice to bring him home?
Goldstein-Love's game of hopscotch through the multiverse works both as a smart sci-fi thriller and as a metaphor for the worry, exhaustion, and power inherent in motherhood. What her husband sees as paranoia, Hannah recognizes as part of the job: "What did he think parenthood was, the vigilance required, the immense responsibility, if not a condition of too much seeing?"
The inclusion of a new mothers' support group adds notes of levity and community, while Hannah's worry about repeating her own mother's history feels true to life. Winding together cosmic malfunctions with the uncertainty of raising an infant creates a surprisingly apt pairing, while small moments of domestic peace reinforce the sense of Hannah's love for her child. This memorable, stirring work of suspense is primed to become a sensation in book club circles. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads
Shelf Talker: A new mother must harness an astounding ability to save her child in this moving, suspenseful sci-fi thriller.