Sunday, September 22, 2013

Life after Life - Kate Atkinson

I am giving this book the distinction of "best book read this year".  It is so well written, imaginative, informative, engaging..think I liked it?

Life after Life poses the question, "what if you could live your life over and over until it turned out the way you would hope?"  A baby is born in 1910 in England during a snowstorm and dies; and then she is born again and lives up to WWI; then she is born again and lives during the bombing of London in WWII…and so on.  The author seamlessly weaves the multiple lives into each other.  A phrase or incident from a previous life appears in the story of the next before you realize it.  There's the sense of deja vu for the reader as the protagonist, Ursula, experiences it herself.

In addition to the multi-layers of Ursula's life, the vocabulary and language for each period is authentic. There are facts and experiences of the two wars from the perspective of those living and dying during them.  There are also references to authors, poets, artists and politicians of the time that immerse the reader in the lives of the characters.  

I'm off to check out other books by this author.  

Published: 2013   Read: September 2013   Genre: Fiction

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