bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Guy Haydon

Life After Life 
by Kate Atkinson
Doubleday
Kate Atkinson's outstanding, superbly inventive novel will take your breath away with the sheer audacity of its simple premise: what if we live and die again and again until we get it right?
A baby, Ursula Todd, is stillborn on February 11, 1910 - strangled by her umbilical cord - after the village doctor is delayed by heavy snow and arrives too late to save her. Darkness falls - "the black bat", as Atkinson describes it. However, on the next page we're back on the same day but this time the doctor gets there "in the nick of time" and Ursula lives, at least for a while.
Each of the engaging Ursula's many lives, focusing on how her struggles with death impact on the people around her, begins at the same time and place. She grows up each time aware only of hazy images, which gives her a "sixth sense" about approaching dangers, such as drowning, sexual predators and deadly wartime bombs.
Yet for all of her premonitions - as a child she's brilliant at guessing what the wrapped-up present is on her birthdays - she still finds it's hard to stay alive. Despite her best efforts, death stalks her, and darkness falls again and again. One inspired section describes her oft-thwarted, increasingly hilarious efforts to keep herself, her family and friends away from the deadly Spanish flu of 1918.
The dynamic novel shows Atkinson's real flair as a writer: her richly drawn characters - particularly members of the Todd family - fine eye for a telling detail and realistic, resonant dialogue.
At its heart are Ursula's many lives leading up to and during the tense, powerfully evoked second world war; indeed, the novel's short, sharp prequel takes us to a café in Germany in 1930, where a woman walks in, nibbles on some streusel, then levels a gun at Hitler's heart. "… Around the table guns were jerked from holsters and pointed at her. One breath. One shot. Ursula pulled the trigger. Darkness fell."
In absorbing, often haunting sections, we are shown the escalating war from both sides, with Ursula living, working, and dying during the fighting in Britain, and also, after studying abroad, watching Nazi Germany's frightening march to war.
Followed on a German train by a lecherous man, who tries to force himself upon her, Ursula is rescued by two black-uniformed SS officers. "The train was late pulling into the station in Munich. There had been some kind of incident … a man had fallen from the train. 'How awful,' said Ursula."
That we, and Ursula, should be taken back to February 11, 1910, so often might suggest a tale that lacks imagination or momentum.
Yet Atkinson confidently jumps between the years and Ursula's lives, adroitly cutting to the chase by focusing on a small detail - a snowdrop placed in a vase, or swift punch to the jaw - to move us on.
The novel - always gripping, and often touching - makes you wish that it, just like Ursula's many lives, would go on forever.


Book review: Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson

Lifestyle

Culture

Books

Kate Atkinson's outstanding, superbly inventive novel will take your breath away with the sheer audacity of its simple premise: what if we live and die again and again until we get it right?
