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There Is No Meant to Be

A Family Story
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There Is No Meant to Be

By: Jarred McGinnis
Narrated by: Jarred McGinnis
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About this listen

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

 Abuse Art & Literature Authors Dysfunctional Families Parenting & Families People with Disabilities Relationships

Critic reviews

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)
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)
Astonishing, so funny and clever - the most beautiful and truthful song to the pain present in a good life (Evie Wyld)
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)
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)
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