What if you could live again and again, until you got it right? On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a … repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.
Does Ursula’s apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can — will she?
Darkly comic, startlingly poignant, and utterly original — this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best.
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I avoid long books by contemporary writers because, for me, they tend to be overwritten and in dire need of a strong editor. Not so with Life After Life. I thank my dear friend and book club compatriot for suggesting this for one of our monthly reads. It was excellent, well-paced, and a fascinating look into life in the first half of the Twentieth …
Definitely a book I will have to re-read. It’s an intriguing premise, told very well. I’ve always liked her books– they have a stream of consciousness feel to them.
In some ways this was an anti-war book, but it was bigger than that. It delved into all the possible paths one’s life can down.
Her research was also superb, truly giving you a …
Kate Atkinson is someone I’ve been aware of for a long time, but this is the first of her books I’ve read. I can see why she’s so popular. Picture a book (or a life) where when things go badly, you get a do-over – and over – until you get it right. As a reader, the sometimes crushingly sad plot developments are tolerable because you know there’s a …
Every time Ursula dies, she’s reborn and gets to live her life over. And it’s the London Blitz so, um, she dies A LOT. A hauntingly beautiful meditation on grief and wartime and loss, with only one shortish apparently compulsory time travel LET’S GO KILL HITLER scene.
What if you kept living the same life over and over only to restart every single time you died? This is the story of a woman who lives hundreds of lifetimes but only one life. Some mere minutes. Some decades. Such an unusual and exciting preface for a book.
This book was a joy to read. Be prepared for twists and turns. But, such a “what if premise”. An interesting exploration of being in the right or wrong place at the right or wrong time!
Probably one of my top ten most favorite reads of the year. Unpredictable and surprising, satisfying and action-packed. Love the time period–WWII and all the twists that the authors spins to bring us to the end. I will definitely re-read this book and I will definitely seek out more by this author.
I’ve just finished reading Kate Atkinson’s new book, Life After Life. It’s an unconventional story about a girl who lives different parts of her life over again. I wouldn’t say that it’s about reincarnation, although I must admit, it has left me wondering how, exactly, to describe what’s happening in this story.
Confused? Let me try to …
It takes a while to get into it, but once you do, WOW. A great read.
You know those moments when you say to yourself – or maybe even out loud – “If I could do that over again, I’d____” and then you fill in the blank with how you would relive that moment, do it better, gain a more advantageous outcome?
Imagine for a moment, though, what it might be like to have no say in the matter at all. Imagine that you are …
A woman born in 1910 discovers that, whenever she dies, she is born again.
This was soooo good. I have no freaking clue how the writer pulled it off, either. This is a lot of historical fiction involving WWI through the Sixties, as the main character experiments with changing the small details of her life and seeing how that affects everything …
I loved the premise of this book. A woman gets a chance to relive her life every time she dies. At first she is unaware this is happening, but as she gradually figures something is amiss, she aims to right certain wrongs. The various directions her life takes during the different lives is remarkable. The book also gives an informative glimpse into …
Once again, a brilliant plot device that made me have to reread the first chapter twice. Its gut wrenching and sad and beautiful and it will stay with you long after you are done. And then you read God in Ruins
Really enjoyed book as I love Atkins writing and the unique intricacies of her stories. Plan to read again one day.
Book: 4 stars. Me: 10 stars for reading it in its entirety.
In summation, the story was very intriguing, the writing was beyond good, but the task of reading it was quite arduous.
This is one of my favorite fiction reads in a long time. It’s probably not a great read for many as it demands you buy into the possibility of a metaverse and that time is just a human construct and other metaphysical questions many may prefer to skip over.
At its heart it is a meditation on all the “what-if’s” we experience, and do we really …
Did not expect the ending!
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson delivers what it promises in the title – a series of lives lived by one woman living in Britain in the first half of the 20th century in the shadow of World War I and II. Ursula Todd seems incapable of dying, whether she drowns, suffocates, becomes ill, gets hit by a bomb or even is murdered. She always seems to …
Inventive use of form and time and point of view.
Outstanding! Highly recommend to all those who love to read a suspenseful and thought provoking work