Midweek Reads: Life After Life
If you live in the USA, today is kind of like Friday. Tomorrow’s Independence Day. If you don’t live in the US, it’s Wednesday and your week is half over. Happy Fourth of July!
If you’re looking for a good book to crack open before fireworks, here’s one that will make you look good in a crowd, because it’s supposedly the hot read of the summer (plus there’s no one kissing on the front and no suggestion of Fifty Shades style tie-me-up kind of frolics– not that there’s anything wrong with that. And that’s why we love our e-readers).
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, the third child of a wealthy English banker and his wife. Sadly, 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 any number of ways. Clearly history (and Kate Atkinson) have plans for her: In Ursula rests nothing less than the fate of civilization.
Wildly inventive, darkly comic, startlingly poignant — this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best, playing with time and history, telling a story that is breathtaking for both its audacity and its endless satisfactions.
Disclaimer: I haven’t read this yet, but it’s waiting for me on my Kindle. It sounds a bit like the movie Groundhog Day, and I love Groundhog Day, so I’m eager to give this a shot.
Are there parts of your life you would do over if you had a chance?
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