From the New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Named “Best Book of the Summer” by Glamour * Good Housekeeping * Cosmopolitan * PopSugar * Bustle * Goodreads
From the acclaimed author of Forever, Interrupted and After I Do comes a breathtaking novel about a young woman whose fate hinges on the choice she makes after bumping into an old flame; in alternating chapters, we see two possible scenarios unfold—with stunningly different results.
At the age of twenty-nine, Hannah Martin still has no idea what she wants to do with her life. She has lived in six different cities and held countless meaningless jobs since graduating college. On the heels of leaving yet another city, Hannah moves back to her hometown of Los Angeles and takes up residence in her best friend Gabby’s guestroom. Shortly after getting back to town, Hannah goes out to a bar one night with Gabby and meets up with her high school boyfriend, Ethan.
Just after midnight, Gabby asks Hannah if she’s ready to go. A moment later, Ethan offers to give her a ride later if she wants to stay. Hannah hesitates. What happens if she leaves with Gabby? What happens if she leaves with Ethan?
In concurrent storylines, Hannah lives out the effects of each decision. Quickly, these parallel universes develop into radically different stories with large-scale consequences for Hannah, as well as the people around her. As the two alternate realities run their course, Maybe in Another Life raises questions about fate and true love: Is anything meant to be? How much in our life is determined by chance? And perhaps, most compellingly: Is there such a thing as a soul mate?
Hannah believes there is. And, in both worlds, she believes she’s found him.
Initial thoughts: How different would life be today if my family or I would've made a different decision? That's a question that's always at the back of my mind because one shift could've led me to grow up in any other country, such as Brazil, Kenya, France, Papua New Guinea or who knows where. These places where all on the table at some point and it's an odd thought that I might've learnt Portuguese or Swahili or might've remained fluent in French. Naturally, Maybe in Another Life resonated with me as two different life paths of the protagonist were presented.
A first I was worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up with the two alternative storylines because the chapters weren't clearly marked in the audiobook. I go the hand of everything pretty quickly though. It was oddly satisfying to know something about the character's lives in one universe, so to speak, because of the alternative one.
Two opposing choices with different outcomes that still found some overlaps also grappled with the notion of fate vs. choice in a very clever way. Inevitably, Maybe in Another Life raised the ultimate question: which choice is the right one? At the end of the day, making one bad choice could lead to many good ones, so who's to one path os any worse than the other?
