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There Is No Meant to Be
- Author
- Jarred McGinnis
- Narrator
- Jarred McGinnis
- Publisher
- Random House
- Publish Date
- 5 March 2026
- Run Time
- 6 hours 3 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
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What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
There is no meant to be but the love I’ve known has made it hard to believe that
An inventive, funny and deeply moving family epic: a love story, an elegy and a reminder that even in the mess of family and memory there is something to laugh about
Jarred McGinnis was born to a Southern US clan where masculinity, resilience and physical violence were intertwined. In There Is No Meant to Be he unearths the legends, secrets and scars that have shaped his family line, from his outlaw Irish ancestors to his mother Momo’s gift of foresight, and the ghosts – both real and remembered – that follow him into adulthood.
Two decades on from the near-fatal accident that left him in a wheelchair, McGinnis is married and the father of two girls, living first in East London and now Marseille. He writes about love within the context of care and of the particular vulnerability that comes from being a parent with a disability. In a daring imaginative leap, he writes of the end of life too, reaching beyond his own death to look at what truly makes a life.
'Raw and intimate, so daring and disobedient’ SARAH HALL
'The most beautiful and truthful song to the pain present in a good life' EVIE WYLD
'Caustic, hilarious, unflinchingly honest and so captivatingly humane, I couldn't put this book down' JAN CARSON
'In a world teetering on madness, here is an ode to truth, courage, and the beautiful power of vulnerability' ELAINE FEENEY
© Jarred McGinnis 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026
Critics Review
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A warm, witty, and wonderful book. A memoir that picks away at the rules of the form and finds something new underneath, Jarred McGinnis' story - told through dream, memory, speculation, and vivid confabulation - is a wild ride, and I'm entirely on board
Jon McGregor
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In There Is No Meant to Be, a profoundly moving and philosophical book that approximates to memoir but resists the limits of that genre, Jarred McGinnis focuses on emotional truth. In doing so, he introduces elements of fiction to amplify that truth, in a time-travelling text that projects into an imagined future... This innovative memoir is not a tale about coping with trauma or a guide for living with a disability, but an exploration of how to lead a commendable life
The Observer
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Jarred McGinnis has a unique storytelling style, caustic, hilarious, unflinchingly honest and so captivatingly humane, I couldn't put this book down. Jarred's life is populated with the most intriguing characters and I loved spending time with them all. Part memoir, part story collection, part raucous celebration of what it means to be alive, there's something to enthral every reader in this book
Jan Carson
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There Is No Meant to Be beautifully accesses the space(s) between novel and memoir, between masculinity and humanhood, and between physical matter and the imagination. Not only does the narrative rearrange literary boundaries, it dismantles stereotypes, rules, truths, histories and impossibilities, even the idea of the self. It’s a long time since I’ve read anything so raw and intimate, so daring and disobedient. I was left feeling certain that if anyone is capable of playing the ace in a hand of cards against The Fates, it's Jarred McGinnis
Sarah Hall
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Astonishing, so funny and clever - the most beautiful and truthful song to the pain present in a good life
Evie Wyld
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A fierce yet tender family saga - part memoir, part memory, part visionary. McGinnis writes with a rare, unsentimental honesty that takes your breath away. I loved this book so much and cannot recommend it highly enough. In a world teetering on madness, here is an ode to truth, courage, and the beautiful power of vulnerability. Stunning
Elaine Feeney
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There Is No Meant To Be is quite unlike anything I've read before. It's a multi-layered, many-textured masterpiece that blends memoir with family myth and pure fantasy. It's a book that exposes the ambiguities of life: the fury and frustration that accompany love, the ugliness alongside the beauty, all told with McGinnis' characteristic dark humour and what feels like a dangerous level of honesty
Charlie Gilmour
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Jarred McGinnis
- Narrator
- Jarred McGinnis
- Duration
- 6 hours 3 minutes
- Release Date
- 5 March 2026
- ISBN
- 9781529975437
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Random House
- Genre
- Memoirs, Autobiography: writers, Local and family history, nostalgia, Disability: social aspects, Parenting, parenthood: advice, topics and issues, Drugs and alcohol: social aspects
Synopsis
Brought to you by Penguin. There is no meant to be but the love I’ve known has made it hard to believe thatAn inventive, funny and deeply moving family epic: a love story, an elegy and a reminder that even in the mess of family and memory there is something to laugh aboutJarred McGinnis was born to a Southern US clan where masculinity, resilience and physical violence were intertwined. In There Is No Meant to Be he unearths the legends, secrets and scars that have shaped his family line, from his outlaw Irish ancestors to his mother Momo’s gift of foresight, and the ghosts – both real and remembered – that follow him into adulthood.Two decades on from the near-fatal accident that left him in a wheelchair, McGinnis is married and the father of two girls, living first in East London and now Marseille. He writes about love within the context of care and of the particular vulnerability that comes from being a parent with a disability. In a daring imaginative leap, he writes of the end of life too, reaching beyond his own death to look at what truly makes a life.'Raw and intimate, so daring and disobedient’ SARAH HALL'The most beautiful and truthful song to the pain present in a good life' EVIE WYLD'Caustic, hilarious, unflinchingly honest and so captivatingly humane, I couldn't put this book down' JAN CARSON'In a world teetering on madness, here is an ode to truth, courage, and the beautiful power of vulnerability' ELAINE FEENEY© Jarred McGinnis 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026
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