In Matt Haig's latest bestseller, The Life Impossible, a retired math teacher goes on a Spanish adventure after inheriting a house on Ibiza. But things on the island aren't quite what they seem. For Matt, the story's surrealist elements mirror aspects of his own journey through depression and mental illness — and coming through it with new ideas about what's possible. He speaks with Mattea Roach about striving for authentic optimism in his fiction.

Music featured in this episode:

"Rainy Days and Mondays" written by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols, performed by Carpenters, from the 1971 self-titled album, Carpenters, produced by Jack Daugherty.