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Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

This novel’s exploration of Ursula Todd’s multiple lives might, at first, leave the reader wondering but for me it was like diving into a wonderful puzzle in which I was invited to figure out the patterns and rhythms for myself, to try to understand what the author was getting at without having any of it slammed over my head. The characters and setting in and of themselves are so well done, but it is really this novel’s brilliant structure that made it five stars for me.

About Life After Life:

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 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.

Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org. 

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