Michael Thompson’s sophomore novel, All the Perfect Days, weaves an intricate tapestry of magical realism and human emotion that both enchants and unsettles. Following his internationally acclaimed debut How to Be Remembered, Thompson returns with a story that asks profound questions about fate, free will, and whether knowing too much about our future can destroy our present.
The novel centers on Charlie Knight, a thirty-eight-year-old family doctor trapped in the comfortable monotony of small-town Marwick. His life follows predictable patterns—Friday night tennis matches he always wins, morning runs through familiar streets, and treating patients who’ve known him since childhood. Charlie harbors secret plans to escape to London for a prestigious emergency medicine position, a dream deferred seven years ago when personal tragedy anchored him to his hometown.
The Gift That Changes Everything
Thompson’s central conceit arrives with unsettling subtlety. When Charlie examines elderly patient Edna Bradley’s arthritic ankles, the world drains of color, pressure builds behind his eyes, and a number materializes in his consciousness: 4. Four days until Edna’s death. This supernatural ability transforms Charlie from a passive observer of life’s rhythms into an unwitting arbiter of fate.
What distinguishes Thompson’s approach is his refusal to romanticize this power. Where other authors might craft wish-fulfillment fantasies about foreknowledge, Thompson explores its psychological toll with unflinching honesty. Charlie’s gift manifests through visceral physical symptoms—the leaching of color from his vision, the crushing pressure in his skull—that mirror the emotional weight of carrying such knowledge.
The author’s background in journalism serves him well here. His prose maintains the crisp efficiency of reportage while allowing moments of lyrical beauty to bloom naturally from the narrative. When Charlie describes stars over Marwick or the sensation of jumping from the old wooden bridge, Thompson’s writing achieves a luminous quality that elevates the story beyond its speculative premise.
Character Development: The Heart of Marwick
Charlie Knight: The Reluctant Prophet
Thompson crafts Charlie as a deeply relatable protagonist whose fundamental decency becomes both his greatest strength and most tragic flaw. His initial attempts to use his gift benevolently—encouraging patients to “catch their mice” and live fully—reveal a man desperate to find meaning in his supernatural burden. The catastrophic consequences of his intervention with Abigail Wilson, a developmentally different young woman whose trust in him leads to tragedy, marks the novel’s emotional nadir and Charlie’s moral reckoning.
Genevieve Longstaff: Love’s Second Chance
Gen emerges as far more than a romantic interest. Her return to Marwick after seven years abroad crystallizes the novel’s central tensions between staying and leaving, past and future. Thompson skillfully reveals their shared history—a lost pregnancy, mutual grief, and paths that diverged—through naturalistic dialogue that never feels expository. Gen’s own epilepsy adds another layer to the story’s exploration of mortality and uncertainty.
The Supporting Cast: A Town’s Soul
Thompson populates Marwick with an ensemble that feels authentically lived-in. From hypochondriac Simon Lopez to lonely farmer Glenn Forrester, each secondary character receives enough development to feel three-dimensional. Malcolm Knight, Charlie’s father, emerges as particularly memorable—a real estate agent whose genuine kindness and sudden death halfway through the novel provides its most devastating gut-punch.
Themes: The Weight of Knowledge
1. The Burden of Prophecy
Thompson explores how knowledge of death transforms relationships. Charlie’s desperate avoidance of learning Gen’s number drives much of the novel’s tension. The author poses uncomfortable questions: Is ignorance truly bliss? Can love survive when one partner knows the other’s expiration date?
2. Small-Town Stagnation vs. Metropolitan Dreams
Marwick itself becomes a character—simultaneously nurturing and suffocating. Thompson captures the peculiar claustrophobia of places where everyone knows your history, where leaving feels like betrayal and staying feels like surrender.
3. Medical Ethics and Playing God
As a doctor, Charlie faces unique ethical dilemmas. His ability transforms routine consultations into existential crises. Thompson doesn’t shy away from exploring how medical professionals navigate the space between healing and accepting mortality’s inevitability.
Technical Excellence and Narrative Craftsmanship
Thompson demonstrates remarkable control over pacing, alternating between contemplative character moments and propulsive plot developments. His use of the present tense creates immediacy while maintaining enough narrative distance for reflection. The novel’s structure—building to crisis, revelation, and tentative hope—feels both satisfying and earned.
The author shows particular skill in handling the mechanics of Charlie’s gift. The physical manifestations (color draining, pressure building) provide visceral markers that ground the supernatural in bodily experience. This attention to sensory detail extends throughout the novel, from the scent of Gen’s essential oils to the dusty heat of Glenn’s farm shed.
Critical Observations: Where the Novel Stumbles
Despite its many strengths, All the Perfect Days occasionally falters. The middle section, where Charlie treats patient after patient while recording their numbers, can feel repetitive despite Thompson’s efforts to vary each encounter. Some readers might find the extensive cast of townspeople difficult to track, particularly in early chapters.
The novel’s resolution, while emotionally satisfying, arrives somewhat abruptly. The revelation that the numbers can be wrong feels slightly convenient, though Thompson seeds this possibility throughout the narrative. The destruction of Charlie’s notebook—burning pages filled with names and numbers—provides powerful imagery but might strike some as overly symbolic.
Additionally, while Thompson’s exploration of grief is generally nuanced, Lorraine Knight’s treatment of Charlie following her near-death experience occasionally veers into melodrama. Her public confrontation at her birthday party, while dramatically effective, feels slightly out of character for someone previously established as controlled and image-conscious.
Comparisons and Context
All the Perfect Days shares DNA with works like Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife and Emma Straub’s This Time Tomorrow in its blend of speculative elements with deeply human concerns. However, Thompson’s medical setting and small-town Australian backdrop give his novel a distinct flavor. Readers who enjoyed Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library or Taylor Jenkins Reid’s magical realism will find much to appreciate here.
Thompson’s evolution from his debut is evident. Where How to Be Remembered dealt with memory and identity, this novel grapples with foreknowledge and fate. Both books share Thompson’s gift for creating emotionally resonant speculative fiction that uses fantastical elements to illuminate universal truths.
Final Verdict: A Thoughtful, Moving Achievement
All the Perfect Days succeeds as both an engaging narrative and a philosophical exploration of how we live with the knowledge of death. Thompson has crafted a novel that entertains while posing profound questions about free will, medical ethics, and the price of knowledge.
The book’s greatest achievement lies in its emotional authenticity. Despite its supernatural premise, the feelings it explores—grief, love, regret, hope—remain grounded in recognizable human experience. Thompson never allows the speculative elements to overshadow his characters’ emotional journeys.
Strengths:
- Rich character development that brings Marwick’s residents to vivid life
- Thoughtful exploration of complex ethical dilemmas
- Beautiful prose that balances efficiency with lyricism
- Emotional depth that resonates beyond the speculative premise
Weaknesses:
- Occasional pacing issues in the middle sections
- Some character reactions that strain credibility
- A resolution that feels slightly rushed
Who Should Read This Book?
All the Perfect Days will appeal to readers who appreciate character-driven narratives with speculative elements. Fans of Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies for its emotional complexity, Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter for its philosophical sci-fi, or Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove for small-town portraits will find much to love. Medical professionals might particularly appreciate Thompson’s authentic portrayal of a doctor’s daily dilemmas, enhanced by supernatural complications.
A Story That Lingers
Thompson has created something special with All the Perfect Days—a novel that uses an impossible premise to explore life’s most fundamental questions. While it doesn’t achieve perfection, it offers something perhaps more valuable: a deeply felt meditation on love, loss, and the courage required to live fully despite knowing that all our days are numbered.
In our current moment, when mortality feels ever-present, Thompson’s novel provides both escape and confrontation. It reminds us that the gift of life isn’t knowing when it ends, but how we choose to spend the days we’re given. For that insight alone, wrapped in such compelling storytelling, All the Perfect Days deserves a place on discerning readers’ shelves.
