This was, I think, my favourite of Bauer’s books. The storyline is very creative and innovative and is really intriguing. I would highly recommend it to everyone.

4.5/5
Hugely captivating, this book had me locked in. I'm of an age that, when younger, I had friends who would collect bird's eggs - that memory came flooding back. And I have to say I felt a sadness and guilt due to the telling of this story.

Beautifully written, with engaging characters and and an emotionally charged storyline, this had me completety gripped.

The overlaying of the plight of the poor birds with Celie's life will stay with me.

I was delighted to receive an arc of The Impossible Thing as I have enjoyed other books by the author and this was a great addition to her storytelling repertoire. Set between the 1920s and present day, the dark and dangerous world of egg collecting is described vividly and so too the landscape of the Yorkshire cliffs where the varied breeds of sea birds nest and soar through the air currents as they have done for millennia. The story and characters were written impeecably, I enjoyed the friendship between Nick and Patrick and the denouement was incredibly satisfying.

Thanks to Netgally and Grove Atlantinc for a chance to read this wonderful book before it's published in exchange for an honest review.
I always loved Belinda Bauer's writing, and especially after meeting her at a writing course I was able to appreciate her writing process even more.
This novel is a shiny example of good writing. Meeting Patrick Fort again was a wonderful surprise (we met him in "Rubbernecker" - 2013). Patrick is on the spectrum, and he is such a wonderful, good and funny character. Also, we have another storyline, set in 1920-1930, that I loved very much. I am so sorry not everyone of those wonderful characters got the happy ending they deserved. But some bad guys definitely got their share of justice!
This is a wonderful novel because it's different, you can't compare it to anything else, and because some of the characters will stay with me for a long time. I wasn't expecting anything less from Belinda Bauer Highly recommended!

Before reading this book I had no idea people actually collected eggs. I am was amazed at the lack of integrity and the determination of these people who wanted to complete their collections of eggs...no matter what the cost.
This is the story of a crime that was unsolved for almost 100 years. It centers around a priceless red egg.The story jumps back and forth between today and almost 100 years before. There is a beautiful love story hidden in these pages where 2 misfits find each other. The greed of man is the big theme here. Even though egg collecting is outlawed men still will want to have egg collections. It made me wonder what is next to collect after ivory, alligator skins and birddogs have been made illegal.
This is a beautifully written book. Read it, you won't be disappointed

Belinda Bauer is a crime writer from Wales who frequently turns up in the crime fiction awards lists – winning a Gold Dagger for Blacklands, as well as the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year for Rubbernecker. I’ve always enjoyed her books, and would find it hard to pick a favourite, but Rubbernecker was, I recall, a cracker – following the story of a young autistic man and his determination to deal, in his own way, with the death of his father. In Rubbernecker, Patrick signs up for an anatomy class, where groups have to examine a corpse to determine cause of death. It’s his mother’s idea – a way to help him get over his obsession with dying. And this is how he gets tangled up in solving a murder.

With The Impossible Thing, Patrick is back. At twenty-three, he is still happily living at home wth his mum, working at a pub and playing computer games badly with friend and former classmate Nick from next door. When Nick and his mother are subjected to a home invasion, the only thing missing is a guillemot egg in an elaborate case, which Nick had found in the attic and advertised on e-bay. He’s selling whatever he can find to pay for a new gaming chair. It seems bizarre that someone would go to such lengths to steal something as unassuming as an egg, until a little digging throws up the illicit world of rare-egg collecting.

It seems guillemots nest on cliffs, clustered in such tight proximity with each other that the mother bird lays a distinctive egg that will be easy to recognise among all the others. The colours are so varied, collectors would vie to obtain the most unusual. This is now quite illegal, but a hundred years or so ago, men would dangle on ropes over cliffs every nesting season to pick out eggs that they could sell. Which is how me meet our other main character, Celie Sheppard.

Celie is so different from her dark, robust looking siblings, her father disowns her and abandons the family to manage Medland Farm themselves. Her mother leaves baby Celie in the care of Robert, the “idiot” boy who helps on the farm in return for bed and board. Celie survives rather than thrives, and the two make an odd pair, both ignored by the other Sheppards. Egg collecting is a nice little earner at neighbouring farms but at Medland Farm there’s a rocky overhang making it impossible. Until skinny little Celie tells Robbie she can fit through a crack in the rock if he’ll hold her rope.

"Robert never ventured on to the overhang. He didn’t say so, but Celie guessed it scared him to be on the sliver of rock with nothing beneath it but air and – finally – sea. It scared her too, but she loved to look through this crack into another world.
Now she put her head into the V again and watched a puffin return to its ledge twenty yards down with a rainbow full of quivering sand-eels. From here she could see hundreds of birds pressed against the cliff-face. And, as they shifted about, glimpses of eggs of every size and colour that she could imagine. They had chickens in the yard, of course, but they laid dull little brown eggs, and never enough to eat, only for selling. These eggs were two or three times that size, and speckled and spotted and splattered with brown and black on backgrounds that ranged from cream, through blue to green. Celie had never had a toy, but the thought of holding such eggs in her little hands made her nearly smile, with a feeling that was beyond hunger."

Celie’s story is one of ambition and trust, heroes and villains, love and also tragedy – particularly for the poor bird who gives up her very saleable egg every nesting season. You’re taken into the world of egg collecting – not just the perilous procedure involved, but also the greed and one-upmanship among the traders and collectors.

Nick and Patrick are also an unusual pair, but are oddly complimentary. Patrick is very smart but lacking in social awareness – something he realises and is working on. Nick isn’t all that bright but can be chatty and friendly. As even owning a rare, collectible egg is illegal, Nick refuses to get the police involved, so the two set about tracking down the stolen egg themselves. This will put them in the path of danger, as well as highlighting the motivations of egg obsessives, natural historians, wildlife custodians, and vigilantes.

The Impossible Thing is another cracking read from Bauer. I loved it, although the animal cruelty described is not for the squeamish. Bauer balances Celie’s more poignant story with the humour of Nick’s situation, his often at cross purposes dialogue with Patrick, their hare-brained schemes. There are some madcap action scenes, and the pace picks up to finish the story with a flourish.

This is also a very original novel, not only in its source material but with its two main characters, both outsiders, but both very likeable. And this makes it interesting. I am not sure if Bauer will bring Patrick back for another adventure, but I was delighted to meet him again and enjoyed his quirky smartness. The Impossible Thing is a four-star read from me.

The Impossible Thing will be released at the end of February. I read a proof copy of the book courtesy of Netgalley in return for an honest review.

If someone had told me I would find a book about bird eggs as captivating as The Impossible Thing, I’d have thought they were losing their mind. But I am pleased to admit that I was wrong—I thought this was book EGGtremely good!

The Impossible Thing weaves together two distinct timelines, one set in the 1920s and the other in the present day. Despite the gap in time, the story remains profoundly interconnected, with the actions of past characters echoing in the lives of their modern counterparts. The symmetry between the two timelines is executed beautifully, with the historical narrative providing a poignant backdrop to the contemporary one. Bauer does an excellent job of intertwining the two, creating a sense of continuity and resonance between the characters of yesteryear and today.

Bauer's characters are rich and nuanced, their lives and struggles incredibly compelling. The way the modern characters' actions are shaped by events long past feels almost like a meditation on fate, choices, and consequences. The link to bird eggs, a seemingly odd subject at first, reveals itself as a metaphor for fragility, hope, and the impossible.

I had previously read one of Bauer's earlier works, and while I enjoyed it, it didn’t quite captivate me the way The Impossible Thing did. This novel drew me in completely—I couldn’t put it down. There’s something magnetic about Bauer’s writing; it’s tender, precise, and effortlessly engaging.

In conclusion, The Impossible Thing is a thought-provoking and immersive read. It’s a story about the small, seemingly insignificant things that can have life-altering consequences. While the concept might initially seem unusual, it’s a testament to Bauer’s storytelling skill that it works so brilliantly. For anyone interested in a unique narrative that spans time and generations, this is a must-read.

Thanks to Belinda Bauer, Grove Atlantic, and NetGalley for access to the Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for a review.

What a unique and interesting story! The is a historical novel recounting the time in England where eggs were collected by the nation’s elite. Poorer people risked their lives to collect the eggs and the more unique the egg coloring, the more valuable they are for the collectors.

The story is a fictional account of the collection, sale, loss and obsession of eggs and the true mystery of the real Metland Eggs, which were highly prized and lost. Moving between the 1920’s discovery and present day, the book is a well written story anchored in a true-life mystery. Recommended!

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book. Bauer did a great job bringing to life the unusual characters in the two timelines of the book. I was unfamiliar with egg collecting as a hobby and the "industry" that developed from it. I was happy to learn that it has become illegal in many places now. I found this bizarre period in history fascinating. The abject poverty of the farmers in the early 1920s in Yorkshire was eye-opening for me as well. The contemporary story also dealt with the now outlawed (in the UK) collecting of eggs. Two young men accidentally get involved when one discovers a valuable egg from the 1920s. They soon find that the egg collectors are still operating illegally and ruthlessly. I enjoyed this unique and surprisingly suspenseful historical mystery.

I loved this book! Belinda Bauer has created something new and unique with this dual-timeline mystery revolving around the (now illegal in the UK) egg collecting (some would say stealing) "industry". An ensemble cast--including a few familiar faces from her 2013 novel, Rubbernecker--propels us vividly through the intrigue, politics, and crime revolving around the near-mythical "Metland Eggs" and stir they caused between the wars, and again when one is rediscovered. With a little romance thrown in, this book has everything--love, murder, hope, history, and enough humor to make you laugh out loud.

You would think the egg on the cover of this book would give some clue that the story is about eggs, but I didn't clue into that, not that it detracted from the story, just wasn't sure why there was an egg on the cover. This story is told in two timelines, in 1920's and in 2020's, in the 1920's certain cliffs around Yorkshire England are accessed by some very brave men to collect eggs from sea faring birds, not to eat, but to collect and sell for the color of their shell, some are more desirable than others, and one young girl, has collected a red one from a remote cliff long thought inaccessible. A man purchases it for a pound, a lot of money in those days. In the 2020's a young man and his mom have been robbed at home by masked intruders, all they took was an item the man had been selling on ebay, something he had no idea was worth a lot of money, a red egg. This leads the young man, Nick and his friend, Patrick to tracking down the egg, and into the world of egg trafficking. There is a lot that goes on in this book and it took me a bit to get into the flow, but once I did the story just flew, I really enjoyed it and I would recommend. Thanks to #Netgalley and to #Grove Atlantic for the ARC.

Belinda Bauer’s The Impossible Thing is a riveting exploration of the forgotten and harrowing practice of egg collecting in 1920s Yorkshire. Men risk their lives to plunder rare bird eggs from cliffside nests, driven by the greed of wealthy collectors, while the birds face potential extinction. At the heart of the story is Celie, a neglected young girl from Metland Farm, whose small size and bravery make her the perfect candidate for this dangerous work. Her discovery of a vivid red guillemot egg changes her life—and sets the stage for an intricate web of obsession, danger, and loss.

Decades later, Patrick Ford (from Rubberneckers) and his eccentric friend Weird Nick are drawn into a modern-day mystery when Nick’s prized scarlet egg is stolen during a home invasion. Their search unravels a deeper secret tied to Celie’s past and the thirty eggs she may have retrieved. The story weaves suspense, danger, and hope, with a nod to modern conservation efforts. Though the large cast of characters can be a bit overwhelming, the thrilling narrative and unique subject matter make this an unforgettable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

I really think Bauer is an excellent writer and a teller of unusual and original stories. And this novel is no different. My only complaint is that, as an American, I think this book was very “British” and as a result I am sure there was nuance I missed. It was also a little hard to follow. But I guarantee that you will never read a book about the subject matter of this book. Give it a try, I think it will be worth your while. And look up Bauer’s other books while you are at it.

4.75⭐️

I love this authors books, her characterisation is superb.

The storyline is highly original. I learnt quite a lot about Gulliemots, and the illeg@l trade in eggs. This book covers a 100 years, and looks at ste@ling birds eggs. A topic as a bird watcher I find very upsetting. My heart went out to the sea birds as their distress was seen by the reader. I loved how briefly we were put into the guillemot’s perspective.

It is so beautifully written, I love the main characters from both time frames, the children Robert (whose kind nature melted my heart)and Ceile from the 1920’s which extended over quite a long period also in the present Patrick makes a reappearance from Rubbernecker (my favourite Bauer book) with his friend Weird Nick. It had me chuckling at their interactions.
I did get myself a little confused over the golden eagle nest and eggs, and the situation that surrounded it which is the only reason it’s not a full 5⭐️

I’d describe this as a character driven mystery which is partly historical. Because of the subject matter it might have a more niche appeal, I am interested in the topic, so it was a great subject for me. I was very interested to see that it is based on a true story.

Moving and swooping and sailing through sky and sea, just like the cliff birds, Bauer's story moves and moves until it ends and in the meantime it hooks me in and I don't want to leave.

She delves into the fascinating obsession with eggs, beautiful eggs, stolen eggs. She adds in poverty, family and repercussions and lets us once again be present to part of Patrick and Nick's story. In this one she had me counting eggs and feeling sad and angry about the little guillemot.

Like always her characters and through them their story is what keep me there. With her people I always find myself wanting more, wanting to be there, to see what they are doing. So it's good that she likes to revisit her characters in following books.

‘The Impossible Thing’ by Belinda Bauer sees the return of this author with a bang.

Set in the world of egg collecting and associated crimes, you really do not see the story turning into the thriller that it is.

I absolutely loved the character development in this book. They were so well described you could see them.

The plot is compulsive and so cleverly plotted.

A great novel and highly recommended.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read for a review.

Belinda Bauer is one of my favourite authors so I was so excited to read this!
To be honest, I really didn’t enjoy it.
It’s safe to say I have no interest in egg trafficking so did not get on with this book.
Chapters flick between past (around the fictional history around egg trafficking) and the present (two boys going to steal back an egg that was stolen from them).
It was an easy read, as all of Bauer’s books are, but unfortunately this was not her best.

I liked Weird Nick and Patrick’s characters.

I found myself getting rather uninterested quite a lot but managed to finish it.

In the year 1926, men were going to great lengths to obtain birds eggs, coloured eggs, the most beautiful eggs, stealing them from nesting birds to be sold. The men dangled off cliffs, took risks so they could line their pockets with silver and the men who bought them were obsessed with getting the best egg to have bragging rights. There was one section of the Cliff they could not reach, a narrow over hang with a wedge shaped crevice that loomed high over the sea. Celie Shepparton is tiny and always hungry and the perfect size to be lowered through the crevice. Here she takes the most beautiful egg, a red egg and it will change her life.
A hundred years later Patrick Fort finds his friend Nick and Nicks mother tied up. It seems he had a red egg and it has been stolen. Patrick and Nick (both a bit “odd” ) decide to find the egg and in the process uncover a greedy cruel world where one certain man will do anything to guard his priceless collection.

#TheImpossibleThing #NetGalley

Any work by Belinda Bauer is a joy to read and this one is no exception. Twists and turns abound with the trademark humor of the author.

Absolutely wonderful

While reading the blurb I was wondering what could be written about bird eggs. The author has done a good job of incorporating the events of a century ago into the present day and woven a good plot. I didn’t know there were collectors of birds eggs and there was an oology society. The conclusion felt rushed and some threads were brought together hastily. Overall 4.5 stars