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Ursula Todd comes in a bar full of German soldiers, kills Hitler, and immediately the others shot her dead. Then she is born but dies at childbirth, so she is born again and makes it until she is a little girl… only to be born again, the same winter day, into the same family, overcoming previous accidents and difficulties that she experienced before.
This could seem a repetitive story, taking into account that Ursula lives many lives, but it’s far from it. In every life the author focuses our attention on a certain aspect of Ursula’s friends and relatives, on how much your life can change in just a second or the chances you have to make a different outcome… But that outcome, is it better or worse? How can we know?
The synopsis of the book asks What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right? And that’s the question the book brings up – what is right? We all agree that right might be not dying from illnesses, accidents or violence, but once you are a healthy human being who lives in a safe environment, there are a number of things that bring you joy and happiness, and some necessarily imply that you can’t have the others.
Life after life is not only a thought-provoking book, but also a historical fiction story since most of it is set on World War II, during the London Blitz and, thanks to Ursula’s many lives, we get many different points of view of that period.
However, and this is funny, the end is open to interpretation, and I think the book is prone to, at least, one re-read, thanks to the clues that some of the characters leave throughout the story. I spent some time reading other readers’ questions and comments on GoodReads, because it really leaves you in need of answers. It’s a great story.
Life after life
Kate Atkinson
Black Swan
Paperback, 620 pages
Read my own damn books: 1st
From Isi 
I’ve had this book for a year now, I think. I bought it months after the hype and I had all the intentions of picking it up.
Everyone I trust has given it a good rating, so I’ll try and pick it up this year as part of the #readmyowndamnbooks challenge!
Yeah, I did the same – I bought it because I was reading reviews everywhere, but then I left it there, unread. Hope you like it as much as I did. And if you want to comment something after finishing it, here I am!
Kisses ❤
Like Melinda, I also have had this book sitting on my shelf for a good year. I’ve been excited to read it since I heard of it but I keep on putting off reading it–I guess because I want to be in the right mood to read it and clear the TBR pile a little. Fingers crossed I get around to reading it sometime this year!
Great review, glad to hear you enjoyed it 😀
Good I wasn’t the only one I hadn’t read it, haha 😉
Hope you like it, and I tell you the same I told Melinda: if you need someone to talk after finishing it (you’ll need someone, for sure!), let me know!
I loved this one and I loved the open ended nature of how it finished.
Yes, it’s great for discussion, and for imagining the different outcomes it implies.
I really loved this book!
I really liked the idea behind this book and have read a couple with similar storylines since. After reading others, it seems I don’t care for the open to interpretation part of Life After Life as much, but it’s still good.
Yes, I’m usually against open endings, but this time it was just right. In fact, I think that this open ending is a way of ending itself, if you know what I mean, because it makes you think in a certain way about the whole story.
A great book, I have to read more about a premise like this one!