I just finished reading the bestseller Life After Life: A Novelby Kate Atkinson. Wow. How inventive, detailed, exhaustive (and a little exhausting). At over 500 pages, this was an investment in time and concentration, but at the end, it paid off.
The premise is: "What if we had a chance to do it again and again, until we finally did get it right? Wouldn't that be wonderful?" Spoken by a secondary character, this idea lies at the heart of the novel. The protagonist, Ursula, keeps getting reborn into the same life and experiences the results of her actions or inactions. Death comes and she does it again, but often avoiding some of the fateful decisions from the previous life or lives. To her, it feels like deja vu, but it is actually her previous self nudging her towards a different destiny. In the end, she finally achieves something that changes the fate of her family, her nation, and the world. Phenomenal.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a different view of reincarnation, or in parallel lives or parallel universes. This would also appeal to people who enjoy historical fiction, with an emphasis on London during the Blitz. Want to stretch your brain? This book is for you.
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