Life After Life

Books | Fiction / Literary

(1.3K)

Kate Atkinson

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.

Historical Fiction

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More Details:

Author

Kate Atkinson

Pages

544

Publisher

Little, Brown

Published Date

2013-04-02

ISBN

0316230804 9780316230803

Ratings

Google: 4

Community ReviewsSee all

"I thought the resurrections were very interesting, but in the end, wondered what the point of the story was. I was struck by several things. 1) the notion that the character could have killed Hitler, 2) the bleak storylines in which she was pregnant and what her life looked like after that. 3) the thought that she learned to live longer after each resurrection, avoiding or making decisions differently at various steps in the road, even without explicit understanding.<br/><br/> I'd be interested in knowing what idea or concept prompted Atkinson to write the story."

Diane Morello

"I found it confusing and uneventful. I listened to an audiobook version of it so that may have aided in the confusion, but I still did not think it was that good. 2/5"

Olivia Denning

"It was too repetitive for me. Maybe I read it during a time in life I didn’t fully appreciate it, but meh. "

Laura Peterson

"Great summer fiction !"

Lindsay pedersen

"Very good "

Christie Miller

"Could not get into it"

B H

Britney Hebert

"This is one of those books that you either love or extremely dislike. I was the latter. I felt it should have been called, "life after life after life after life…". The story line was more of an excuse for the author to recreate do-overs instead of just getting the story straight from the get go. Just my opinion."

Tanya Grayson Andoniadis

"I wish there was a so-so button. This book was so-so. It's not "great"."

D N

Denise Nash

"Great writing!"

John Pogacnik

"I wavered between 2 and 3 stars for this. I liked the concept of the book but towards the end, I was just wishing it would be over. I kept forgetting which "life" Ursula was in, even if I had only put the book down for a day. Maybe it would have been better if I had been able to read the book in just one or two sittings."

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