A unique and captivating historical fiction novel. The reader is given 12 days of Issac’s life and the significant things that happened on that day. The book is written as a memoir from Issac, and spans several decades. The narrative blends historical fact with fiction and is very engaging. The cleverly crafted story delves into themes of identity, resilience, and the passage of time.
Many thanks to Kensington and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

pretty cool book with some pretty cool ideas and awesome motifs. woudl recommend this wrok as it's great.

The Very Long, Very Strange Life of Isaac Dahl by Bart Yates is an intriguing and deeply emotional exploration of identity, family, and the often strange twists life can take. From my perspective, the novel balances wit and heart in a way that keeps you engaged with Isaac’s journey. Yates creates a protagonist who is quirky, flawed, and incredibly relatable, as he navigates the ups and downs of his unique life. The blend of humor and melancholy gives the book its charm, though at times, the narrative can feel a little uneven, as if it’s trying to juggle too many themes at once. However, Isaac’s character growth and the deep emotional truths about life, love, and acceptance make this a heartfelt and memorable read. For readers who enjoy character-driven stories with a mix of the bizarre and the touching, Yates delivers a novel that’s both entertaining and introspective, even if it occasionally feels a bit meandering.

The Very Long, Very Strange Life of Isaac Dahl by Bart Yates offers a compelling and poignant exploration of one man's extraordinary life through a uniquely structured narrative. Spanning nearly a century, the novel chronicles the life of Isaac Dahl from the age of eight to ninety-six, using twelve chapters that each focus on a single day, spaced eight years apart.

The story begins in 1926 with a dramatic avalanche that sets the stage for Isaac’s lifelong journey. Each subsequent chapter reveals a pivotal day in Isaac’s life, juxtaposed against major historical events and personal milestones. This format allows readers to experience both the grand and intimate moments of Isaac’s life, from his early years with his twin sister, Aggie, to his adventures and challenges as he grows older.

One of the novel’s greatest strengths is its exploration of relationships. Isaac’s deep bond with Aggie, his twin sister, and his loyal friend Bo, provides the emotional core of the story. The book beautifully depicts the complexities of these relationships, capturing both the joy and the struggles of growing up and navigating life’s trials.

The historical backdrop adds depth to the narrative, as the novel weaves through significant events such as the Dust Bowl, World War II, and the AIDS crisis. These historical contexts enrich the story, offering a broader perspective on how world events intersect with personal experiences.

Yates' writing is both elegant and evocative, with a narrative style that immerses readers in Isaac’s world. The book’s pacing, while initially slow, builds into a moving and reflective experience. The emotional resonance of the story, combined with its insightful portrayal of historical and personal moments, makes it a deeply satisfying read.

In summary, The Very Long, Very Strange Life of Isaac Dahl is a beautifully crafted novel that invites readers to reflect on their own lives and relationships. Through its unique structure and heartfelt storytelling, it delivers a rich tapestry of love, loss, and resilience. This book is a testament to the power of both personal connections and the enduring impact of historical events.

What a beautiful story. Isaac Dahl's life is presented to us through 12 chapters, each spanning a different time of his life from childhood to elderly years. Dahl's life is exciting, adventurous, captivating, and funny, but the true magic is the love. Isaac is blessed with a twin sister and a best friend so loyal they are truly a trio of soul mates. His family grows over the years and the bond between them all is the heart of this book. This had a slow srart but soon i was swept up by the lovely writing and the touching story.

This is the story of an extraordinary ordinary life. Isaac Dahl sits down to write his memoir at the age of 96. How does one tell a story that spans nearly a century? In Isaac’s case, he highlights twelve days, each separated by eight years.

We meet Isaac at the tender age of 8 along with his twin sister, Aggie. The relationship between the siblings remains a central element of who Isaac is and how he navigates the world. As the mother of boy/girl twins, I found the depiction of their twinship particularly compelling. Both Isaac and Aggie are aware of their connection while trying to establish their individual paths. Their competitiveness, squabbling, interdependence, and deep abiding love spoke to my soul.

Each chapter advances Isaac’s life by eight years. We experience significant historical events through his eyes and see how those shape him. At its core, Isaac’s story is one of relationships - family, friends, and lovers play pivotal roles and his life is richer as a result.

This is a book that prompts the reader to reflect on their own life; to identify the moments and people who played a pivotal role in defining who they are and how they view the world. Isaac Dahl is every man and he reminds us that we each have a unique story to tell.

I loved this book for its simplicity and gentle narrative.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my unbiased review.

This was a lovely book! At only about 250 pages it was a quick read, but it was so enjoyable to get lost in. I loved the structure of this book, 12 chapters featuring 12 days in Isaac's life. The prose was beautifully written, and I even highlighted a few parts. I think that fans of Frederik Backman would particularly like this book (I am a huge fan of his myself). I would definitely recommend this book! I received a free copy of this book from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

This book reminded me of 'Forest Gump' as far as the many incredible events of Isaac's life - both natural and man-made. It was interesting, and the writing style was easy to follow. I found the characters to be somewhat shallow, not fully realized. The time jumps moved the story forward quickly, almost too quickly. Overall, it was an enjoyable read - I kind of wish there had been more to it, as it felt somewhat short, leaving some of the more exciting stories hanging.

Much like David Nicholls' One Day, The Very Long, Very Strange Life of Isaac Dahl, picks up the story and leaves the reader, featuring one day every eight years. Encompassing wide swaths of 20th century history, featuring several major events, we see the world through the life of Isaac Dahl. Beginning in his childhood years, we see Isaac's writing and perspective on the world and it's happenings around him. The Very Long, Very Strange Life of Isaac Dahl is a heartfelt and thoughtful story that will surely please fans of Fredrik Backman.

A whole life in twelve days. Wow. I absolutely adore when I get to experience the whole life of a character in a book, though it's not a plot I find often. The concept of the book is amazing: a single day in life every eight years. I saw some reviews that said it was confusing, however, to me, it was the best thing.

Iscaac's life was indeed long, we get to meet him at the age of 8 and say goodbye at 96. Thought, I didn't find his life strange, in fact, besides surviving every natural & historical disaster he encountered, the life was rather common. So I do find the name of a book a bit misleading. I've got to be honest, I expected something more "strange".

The relationships with family, especially with Isaac' twin sister Agnes and her children was probably my favorite part. I loved seeing everyone grow up, do the things they love and always supporting each other. Bo, the best friend, was probably my most beloved character; his love, loyalty and humor grew on me immediatelly from the first chapter. Agnes was a real firecracker, short tempered, strong willed woman, who sometimes lost touch with her own feelings and behaved wildly. I did relate to her a lot, though.

There were some heartbreaks, also one or two love stories in the book, however, I wish we could have gotten more of Isaac's lovelife, his feelings. In general, I really enjoyed following this strong man through the years and seeing the world move through the ages. The last chapter, in my opinion, could have been a little strongers, but on the other hand, I feel like the book ended on a rather perfect note.

4 5⭐️ - I loved the way this book was done. It always left me wanting a little more detail, but the amount given was still satisfying. The way historical events were weaved in was so well done, and the emotions hit me surprisingly hard at the end of the book.

In this novel, historical fiction spans nearly a century, capturing the essence of Isaac Dahl’s life through a unique narrative approach—each chapter encapsulates a single day from every eight years he lives, beginning at the age of eight, alongside his twin sister. From the outset, the story sweeps readers into a dynamic journey, marked by both extraordinary historical events and the seemingly ordinary moments that, in their own way, become deeply significant.

Isaac’s life, initiated by the chaos of an avalanche, unfolds in a way that continually surprises and engages. The novel masterfully weaves together the monumental and the everyday, demonstrating that even the most mundane experiences carry weight when viewed through the lens of familial love and connection. It is within these moments that the true heart of the story lies—a testament to the enduring bonds of family and the individual paths each member carves out for themselves.

The emotional range of the book is remarkable; it shifts seamlessly from moments of fear to those of poignant reflection, and even humor. This multifaceted narrative offers a profound reading experience, capable of providing comfort and perspective, especially during challenging times. Personally, it served as a much-needed refuge during a difficult phase in my life.

I extend my deepest thanks to John Scognamiglio Books, author Bart Yates, and Edelweiss/ATTL for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Isaac Dahl is a reporter with a long and storied life. From his early years in a Utah mining town, to living in Italy with a much younger lover, to fighting in the Civil Rights movement and reporting in Vietnam, he’s been all over the world. Isaac has been a professor, a protestor, and a devoted uncle, brother, and best friend.

This is a fictional story, presented as a memoir, and it is a book that will either work for you, or it won’t. This book shares twelve memories, twelve moments in Isaac’s life that span almost a century of living, ranging from the death of a young boy, to sitting in a basement while a tornado tears off the roof of the house. It’s earthquakes and avalanches, AIDS and World War II, the Civil Rights movement, and a walk along a moonlit beach. There doesn’t feel like a real point to these moments other than that Isaac lived them, that he shared them with the people he loved.

The events in the story are nicely presented, from the Dust Bowl to the nuclear bomb testing at Bikini Atoll, bringing such world altering events to a more immediate, more personal focus. Isaac watching the Mary Rose being salvaged as a nice callback to Isaac’s time on the USS Houston, a warship lost in World War II, much as the avalanche at the beginning and the earthquake at the end mirror one another, both leaving Isaac shaken, while at the same time tossing him onto the next step in his journey.

Isaac doesn’t really have a strong voice as a character, however. He’s a conceit, as much as he is anything, an idea of a person living from 1926 to the end of the book, in 2014, as he contemplates what the next years will be. He’s said to be, of course, a brilliant writer, a charming man, and all the good things that a world famous journalist should be, but on page, he’s just the framework for words. Reading the author’s note at the end of the book, I found Isaac’s voice felt like that of Bart Yates, the author himself. It’s a lovely, conversational voice, one that can easily tell a story, but it also keeps Isaac from feeling like a separate person.

The main characters in Isaac’s life are his twin sister, Aggie, and their friend Bo, a young man loved by both of them. Aggie’s children, also twins — Ty and Karen — and Bo’s son, Elias, as well as Karen’s adopted son, Jesse, are there to fret over Isaac, to support him, to cheer him on, and to return to when he needs a place to rest. And as with Isaac, I didn’t find them to feel like people in their own rights, so much as ideas. All of them are brilliant, witty, and clever, and all of them sound alike, talk alike, joke alike, and revolve around Isaac alike. While that might be because this is Isaac’s memoir, and the people in his life are being written from his memories, with his words, with his ideas of who they are and who he wants to be, it did make them feel like things to witness. Things to watch and admire, laugh at, or judge, rather than people. Rather than being immersed in the world, I read about it, and then the book was done.

There will be people who truly love this book, but I didn’t. What I did enjoy was the writing. The author has such a warm, friendly style, so very easy to read. Somehow the whole book passed from page one to the end without me noticing. Honestly, I could have kept reading. But this book won’t linger in my mind, and isn’t something I’ll ever come back to. The author, on the other hand, is someone I very much want to see more from and to read more of his books.

When I read the premise of this book I expected an adventure and found family along with some commentary on historial stigmas and injustices regarding specifically the lgtbq+ community…and that’s exactly what this was.

If you’ve read A Man Called Ove and Normal People, you might enjoy this one! As the title indicates, we follow the life of Isaac Dahl from age 8 to age 96. From a young age, destiny seems to throw him on the most bizarre and heartbreaking situations, from an avalanche to loss, this book covers a plethora of human emotions without it diving too deep on the psyche of the main character or the characters around him, a fact I found interesting since I’m used to caring for the protagonist based on his emotional take on things and, even though this book is in first person, I found the author’s voice to be detached, factual, without removing the human aspect. Looking forward to reading more from this author in the future.

I felt as if I was watching a movie, I came to care about him simply by use of empathy. I deeply enjoyed the historical aspect of this book. We always learn about the events but rarely think about what the people living them were going through, this book puts you right there in riots, natural disasters, war, it’s all very interesting.

A colorful, eventful life, with vibrant settings and sombre at times, this book is recommended for those who want to see life through the eyes of someone who has lived it.

This was a wonderful story about life and the moments that impact us. I wish I could go back in time to talk to my grandparents and great aunts/uncles about their lives and hear their stories all over again.

Each story brought beautiful memories of intimacy and connection to those we love and need in our lives. I will be reflecting on this story for a while.

The pacing of the stories was well done. There were heart stopping moments and then afterwards a nice calm moment to show how life is parts of ebb and flow, action and rest.

I absolutely adored this book and the character Isaac Dahl. Bart Yates did an incredible job with the format, skillfully blending real historical events with Isaac’s fictional experiences. The novel spans twelve pivotal moments in Isaac's life, each occurring eight years apart, starting from when he was eight years old in the 1920s.

The historical sections are meticulously researched, but what truly captivated me was how Yates included not just major events like wars and natural disasters, but also the small, personal moments that shaped Isaac's life. For instance, there's a charming chapter about Isaac's great-nephew experiencing puberty during a winter weekend at the beach.

Typically, I’m not a fan of long chapters, but in this case, they were necessary to fully convey the significance of each event in Isaac's life. Yates’ writing is so engaging that the twenty-page chapters seemed to fly by. At 240 pages, the book is relatively short, and I was so engrossed that I finished it in just a couple of sittings. It's a rich tapestry of love, history, loss, adventure, and resilience. This book truly has it all. Five stars, without a doubt.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.

The Very Long, Very Strange Life of Isaac Dahl is a moving story of one man's life. Each chapter moves eight year forward in Isaac's life bracketed by two natural disasters- an avalanche in the valley he lived in with his family in 1926 as a child and an earthquake at a winery in 2014. Isaac's life allows the audience a capture into major historical events (Dust Bowl, World War II, integration of the South, and the AIDS crisis) with a through line of his close relationship with his twin sister Aggie and best friend Bo. The book absolutely had me in my feels, and I truly enjoyed my time with Isaac.

Thank you to Kensington Books for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

What a truly unusual and creative book! It is the fictional memoir of 96 year old Isaac Dahl, who decides to write his life’s story by focusing in events in his life at eight year intervals. which provide twelve discrete chapters. Isaacs begins his story at age eight when he and his twin sister , Aggie , survive an avalanche in an upside down bathtub. We then get a bird’s eye view of, Aggie and best friend Bo , throughout their lives. And they lived through plenty, as do most people.

The book takes us through the days of the Dust Bowl, a battleship in WWII, the testing of atomic weapons in the desert, the fight for Civil Rights in the USA, the scourge of AIDS in the 1980s, growing up gay in a country where being gay wasn’t accepted and so much more. Each of the twelve discrete chapters highlights an important issue of the time, and how Isaac’s life was impacted.

Beautifully written with passion, humor, and a deep understanding of the human condition , The Very Long Life of Isaac Dahl was a treat from beginning to end. I will be watching for upcoming books written by Bart Yates. Four dancing stars for a book that was published this week on July 23, 2024. Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Books/ John Scognamiglio for an advance readers copy in exchange for my review.

A life told in twelve chapters, each lengthy, going into rich, (mostly) descriptive (that’s not even really fair to say, as the chapters were as detailed as the author saw fit to write even if I wanted more at some chapters. With awful acts of nature and man in each, by the time I was reading chapter three, I wondered if perhaps I’d made an awful this-is-going-to-possibly-be-not-good-for-my-mental-health-comfort-level-regarding-consumerable-media mistake. The kind that makes me wonder if I should just stop reading, because although this story is gorgeously written and I really want to know what happens to Isaac and all the other characters, it’s still wrecking me.

This is one of those books - I can already tell that I’ll appreciate this book even more in the future. This wasn’t an easy read for me, not at all, but it was a beautiful one. As a reader of history and historical fiction, I greatly appreciated and respected the research Mr Yates put in (as I’m sure you’ve quite possibly experienced yourself, not every author does and it bothers me each time). The result of this combined with the author’s terrific storytelling talent was an engrossing tale that I didn’t want to stop reading.

Content warnings abound and tissues will be necessary and you will likely continue to think about it, but this story was gorgeous, and if your own mental wellbeing is in a good place, I recommend this.



Thank you to A John Scognamiglio Book and NetGalley for the DRC

Isaac Dahl’s story begins at 8, sitting beside his sister following their bath. Their mother shushes them, listening for the giant outside their snowy mountainside home is Utah.
 
And though it begins like a child’s fable, it is nothing short of a deeply affecting book of love, loss, and the passage of time. Both intimate and sweeping, it’s a swirling of fact and fiction into the most interesting saga of 12 days in the life of a man.

Each chapter is spaced 8 years apart, focusing on a different event in Isaac’s life, from childhood through old age. When we last hear from Isaac, he is 96.
 
The author’s note for this one is interesting and I urge you not to miss it when you finish (and wipe the tears from your eyes). He speaks of how he had a sketch, an idea of how it would go: a story of a boy, told in increments, who becomes a journalist and thus travels the world, experiencing everything. But then side characters who were meant to give color to the narrative demand more attention, and so we also dive deeply into the lives of Aggie, his twin sister, and Bo, their neighbor and best friend.

We join Isaac as he survives living in the dustbowl, marching with Black students attending white schools in Mississippi, the AIDs crisis, time on a battleship, finding love in Italy, and so much more.
 
I think what I loved best is that it didn’t feel special until I realized that it was so incredibly special. When I couldn’t put it down because now Isaac was 32, now 40, now 48 - and what comes next?

He’s such a lovely man - not a curmudgeon, not a cad - a man who loves and teases, laughs and argues, fights and falls. He is every man but he is also unlike anyone else. And I was deeply invested in his life.

I don’t know what else to say without spoilers, so I would encourage you to take an afternoon and read this ever so lovely book. At less than 300 pages, you won’t believe the emotional punch it packs.

Thanks to @netgalley and @kensingtonbooks for the early audiobook to read and review. This one comes out July 23, 2024.