The Impossible Thing

‘A funny, moving and beautifully written tale’ Guardian

On a summer’s evening in 1926, six-year-old Celie Shepherd is hungry and desperate and not where a six-year-old should be. Instead she is dangling from a cliff, far above the sea, reaching out to pocket an impossibly beautiful thing.

This bold theft will change the course of Celie’s life, and the lives of others.

One hundred years later, a house is ransacked. The only thing missing: a dusty case containing that same impossible thing.

What could conceivably be so important that it is stolen again and again (and perhaps yet again . . . )?

So begins this extraordinary mystery from award-winning Belinda Bauer.

A taut, wonderfully imagined novel brimming with skulduggery at every turn, The Impossible Thing is a blazing testament to Belinda Bauer’s status as one of our greatest living crime writers.

'An exciting contemporary whodunnit' Times Literary Supplement

'Extraordinary. There's a deceptive simplicity to The Impossible Thing that packs a real punch.' ANN CLEEVES

‘The gift of The Impossible Thing is the pure joy of reading.’ VAL MCDERMID

'Solid gold. . . This could be her best ever.' LEE CHILD

‘A captivating novel from one of the UK’s most talented storytellers. I loved every page of this unique mystery.’ CLARE MACKINTOSH

'[A] suspenseful, charming mystery.' New York Times ('best thrillers of of 2025')

PRAISE FOR BELINDA BAUER:

'As good as Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time . . . and with more twists and coils than a hangman's noose.' Sunday Express on Rubbernecker

‘Few writers who convey so well the essential sadness of life do so with such warmth and wit’ Sunday Telegraph

‘Belinda Bauer’s fiction teems with life. She’s also an ingenious creator, never afraid to improve on reality.’ Daily Telegraph

‘Belinda Bauer has shifted the boundaries of what makes a truly gripping, terrifying thriller.’ Daily Mirror