The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
Books | Fiction / Visionary & Metaphysical
3.8
(1.6K)
Claire North
Wildly original, funny and moving, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is an extraordinary story of a life lived again and again from World Fantasy Award-winning author Claire North.Harry August is on his deathbed. Again.No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes. Until now. As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside. "I nearly missed you, Doctor August," she says. "I need to send a message."This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow.
Time Travel
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Author
Claire North
Pages
416
Publisher
Orbit
Published Date
2014-04-08
ISBN
0316399639 9780316399630
Ratings
Google: 5
Community ReviewsSee all
"It is widely known between my husband and select friends that I do not care for time travel. While this plot is not exactly as such it still follows the same principles. Why do you ask does it bother me? Well because my analytical brain kicks in and starts asking too many questions that no author ever explains.<br/><br/>Like what was anyone's purpose when they live the same life over and over not quite altering the world around them? Are they branching off realities leaving their past selves and others to suffer what they have changed? How, after a thousand years, have they not gone entirely insane? The final death also was a plothole not to be elaborated on.<br/><br/>Narrator Peter Henry did a fantastic job on the audibook and Harry was a deep meaningful protagonist. Even though the story dragged at times Harry's mannerisms and ideology kept me going. He was meticulous and calculating to a point where most would have just given up. I had great respect for Harry. Still the story kept building to a peak which wasn't at all surprising so let me down in the end."
"I originally rated this a 4, but after meeting with my book club to discuss this, I realized it really was a 5 star read for me. I said it better in person so I’m including our moderator’s excellent transcription of my thoughts: Allie said she “really enjoyed it,” found it interesting, liked the challenge of it, took notes on the various time lines (though said the second half more linear), and liked the environmentalism, plus described it as “historical” and “human.”<br/><br/>It’s a good high level recap of my feelings, but what it doesn’t capture is the heart pounding need to finish (I read most of this in one day) and the emotional investment I had in the story. I absolutely loved how this progressed, and it’s the type of book that’s a good surface story, but has even more to unearth if you want to dig deeper. I’m already wanting to re-read this to get a fuller appreciation for the story and it has a place of honor on my bookshelf!"
A P
Allie Peduto
"Started rereading one of my favorites: Villa Incognito. Its fantastic. Crude, but fantastic. "
D B
Daniel Benson
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