LIFE AFTER LIFE PDF, EPUB, EBOOK

Kate Atkinson | 624 pages | 14 Mar 2014 | Transworld Publishers Ltd | 9780552779685 | English | London, United Kingdom LifeAfter - Survival Mobile Game

But she also must contend with moral choices, and larger scale. Not only figuring out what the right thing is to do and then deciding, for her life, but thinking about how events affect other people, the nation, maybe the world. What sort of life does she want to lead? How can she help the most people? What sort of person does she want to be? Can she make an impact beyond her immediate concerns? And within that context, others face similar choices. Ursula is not the only one with multiple exit scenes. There are plenty in the chorus of secondary characters who come and go, or should that be go and come back in varying iterations. What if so-and-so did A this time and B the next? How might that change things? This is part of the fun of the book. Excuse me a moment, Nala, sweetie, off the desk please. I will be happy to scratch you. No, do not rub up against my coffee cup. Too late, brown milky liquid splatters from the cup on the desk, rushing over the top of the desktop tower, which is sitting on the floor between desk and couch. I get up to fetch some paper towels. Maybe I should have worn slippers. I step away from the desk chair, contact enough wet to matter, and only feel it for moment when my body hair begins to ignite and my heart goes into highly charged spasms. I hear the beginning of a scream and then…. Seems a lovely morning for some reviewing. Rainy out? Well, not yet, but you can feel it coming. So, open a few windows. Sit at the desk. Maybe not. Might be a bit too much breeze there. Maybe the couch for a change. Yeah, book, they killed Kenny. You bastards! And I was, on, oh, page of the manuscript and still in the s. A Visit from the Goon Squad is one of the more dramatic of that sort. The rise of the novel comprised of linked stories has seen a boom in popularity. And so it is with Life After Life. While the notion of reincarnation is hardly new in fiction, how it is handled here is far beyond what we have seen before, a real risk-taking. And so effective. Ursula is a very engaging character. Each time she comes back, you want her to stick around. And even when she makes bad choices you will be rooting for her to fix those in the next round. Her sister Pamela seems as decent a sort as their brother Maurice seems insufferable, maybe a bit too insufferable. I found it to be entirely engaging, and was always sad when Ursula went dark yet again. The book opens with her taking aim at the worst baddie of the 20th century and you will keep hoping she finds her way back to that place and completes the mission. Will she? One of the most riveting and memorable elements in Life After Life is the description of London during the Blitz, on the ground, you-are- there, offering considerable nightmare material, and making it clear just how hardy the survivors must have been, and how fragile the hold on life, whichever iteration a person is in. The best part of the book, for me. There are many uses of animal references here. Ursula means little bear, The family name, Todd, means Fox. A group of Nazi wives is referred to as a wolf pack. Actual foxes move in and out of the story, residents of Fox Corner, the Todd family home. A German is named Fuchs which also means fox. There are more. A warden during the Blitz is named Woolf. At one point, Atkinson offers a wink and a nod to readers as her characters discuss time travel questions. There is much consideration here of the role and rights of women in the first half of the 20th century, and the changes in mores that marked the era. The difference between love and gratitude when considering marriage is considered. The effect of World War I on the nation is noted as well, the loss of a generation of men in the war, and the loss of vast numbers from both genders from the Spanish flu. While florid passages do not characterize the novel, there are some wonderful descriptions. Against the backdrop of black night the fires that had been started burned in a huge variety of colors—scarlet and gold and orange, indigo and a sickly lemon. Occasionally vivid greens and blues would shoot up where something chemical had caught fire. Savage and strangely magnificent. Yes it is. Now that the task is done, I think I will bring in a glass of juice and have some of these lovely hard sourdough pretzels. Maybe catch something from the DVR. Always loved these pretzels, except, of course, when bits get stuck going down. Sometimes large bits, uh oh, a very large bit…trying to self-Heimlich, but no go, hitting my head on the edge of the coffee table as I stumble and fall while trying to stand up. Maybe if I can get some liquid in there it will soften it, but the noggin-knock and the inability to get any air makes decision-making a tough go. The link to the second part is at the bottom of this one. View all 58 comments. May 29, Jason rated it it was ok Shelves: for-kindle , wine-club , , reviewed. Ursula Todd is an English-born nobody. This is not a spoiler, by the way. The assassination occurs on page one. The hundreds of lives it takes for her to get to that point occur on pages two through five hundred twenty-nine. But truthfully, most of the time the modification occurs on its own without her having to do anything at all. And that is what is most bothersome to me, I think besides her dull personality. It is exhausting to read about a woman dying over and over again only to be reborn right back where she started, and all without seeming to have any input into anything whatsoever. She just goes along with the program, a plastic bag beaten about by the wind. Is she a mother this time around? A spinster? And then you start to realize that who cares. In fact the only time she ever starts to make real decisions is toward the end of the novel after she has lived a ludicrous number of lives, and are we supposed to be at this point rooting for her? Good grief. Also, the character interactions, which is something I usually enjoy in novels, is pretty nonexistent here. Reading this book ultimately became tiresome to me, which is not really how you want your reading experience to go. View all 41 comments. I'm pretty sure the idea of being forced to live my life over and over again is something plucked from my worst nightmares, but who among us hasn't been at least tempted to dream of it occasionally with a wistful sigh. Please, please, please, just one more chance to live the best moments again and when necessary, to make different choices? But I would imagine if any of us were actually tasked to unravel all the "right" and "wrong" choices from our life and to relive the bad with the good, we'd g I'm pretty sure the idea of being forced to live my life over and over again is something plucked from my worst nightmares, but who among us hasn't been at least tempted to dream of it occasionally with a wistful sigh. But I would imagine if any of us were actually tasked to unravel all the "right" and "wrong" choices from our life and to relive the bad with the good, we'd go screaming into the night like raving banshees. For what is a perfect life? How many kicks at the can would it take for you to answer that question, if it is indeed answerable at all? Change one thing, change everything, change nothing, change all the good, change all the bad. Round and round and round. It's exhausting just thinking about it. What's the saying? If I only knew then, what I know now What would you do different? And would different choices always translate into better choices? Ursula is a normal British girl except she's pretty certain she's lived her life before, maybe many, many times. The older she gets, the stronger these feelings of deju vu become, hounding her like ghosts in the night. Her prescience is rarely crystal clear, more like moods or instinct. Do this. Don't do that. Run away. Run toward. Stay still. Life After Life starts slow and unassuming. The story is teasing, the pacing a dawdling, scenic walk through the English countryside. But from the very first page I was enthralled and little did I realize what a powerful spell Atkinson was casting on my reader brain. Because as you continue to read, the book picks up gravity and speed and texture. Each life after life reinforces the tender bonds you have been working on with each of the characters. Your acquaintance with them is not one brief life, but many, many lives. Like Ursula we are both cursed and blessed with the long view, the big picture. We come to know all the various permutations of death, cruelty, love and loss. We bear witness through two World Wars and how some forces, no matter how forewarned, are unstoppable, greater even than the hand of time. This is a very English story, and is steeped in pre historical detail. Not ever having watched an episode of Downton Abbey I'll go out on a limb here and suggest fans of that show will love this novel for its acute sense of time and attention to detail. Atkinson is ruthless in her pursuit for authenticity. This is wartime England, no time to pussyfoot around. This has got to be right , and in her quest I believe she succeeds magnificently. The details are small but glorious, and paint such an intimate portrait you will feel absorbed into Ursula's quiet family life where there are disagreements and births, and jealousies and forgiveness. Yes, there is the rumble of the earth as the German bombs fall during the Blitz, but such terrible moments co-exist with the stark ordinariness of a life lived. Dinners, and picnics, and birthdays and games of cricket, and work, and gardening, and lots and lots of tea. Something cold and wet nosed itself up Ursula's skirt. She hoped very much that it was the nose of one of the dogs and not one of the evacuees. This knowledge of the ATS girl's background seemed to particularly infuriate Edwina, who was gripping the butter knife in her hand as if she were planning to attack someone with it--Maurice or the ATS girl, or anyone within stabbing distance by the look of it. Ursula wondered how much harm a butter knife could do. Enough she supposed. There is whimsy and humor laced throughout this novel and it makes for a beautiful contrast to the more serious components of tragedy and war. Life is a farce after all; if you can't find the humor in it you've been doing it wrong or have missed the point entirely. Atkinson has not missed the point. As readers, we are in capable hands. She has one helluva story to tell you, and trust me, you don't want to miss it. This review can also be found at Busty Book Bimbo. View all 25 comments. Apr 24, Melissa rated it really liked it Shelves: she-and-or-they-but-not-he , ah-deadly. Ursula Todd is born in with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. The doctor cuts the cord. Ursula grows to age five, when she almost drowns in the ocean on holiday. A man on the beach saves her. She falls out the window of her house that winter. Could a little event like World War II have anything to do with it? As a book about the life of Ursula Todd, this succeeds brilliantly. Unfortunately, once this book tries to figure out what it all means, it gets a little muddled. In she kills Hitler. In her brother is found alive after the war. I need a little distance first. View all 33 comments. Shelves: , historical- fiction. Wouldn't that be wonderful? And how sad it is to think that I might have passed this novel over and never known these characters and relationships. It often seems like I am the only person in the world who hasn't watched Downton Abbey definitely the only Brit who hasn't but the favourable comparisons I keep seeing between the show and this book make me want to drop everything and go watch it. I imagine it has similarities. All the drama of wartime England combined with a soft, often quiet story about family life and just So many people come and go in this novel, but each one is lovingly-crafted and leaves their own personal mark. I adore it when authors do this - and so few do - when they make sure every single character becomes a human being with a life and personality beyond pushing the plot in a certain direction. The story centres around Ursula Todd who is born one snowy night in and dies that night from strangling on her own umbilical cord. On that same night in , Ursula is born and lives. What follows is a strange life full of many deaths that were, at the same time, also avoided. Somehow, in the hands of this extremely talented writer, a concept as trite as second chances becomes original, beautiful and so so moving. I would not sell this as a fast-paced adventure; it's pacing is relatively slow and it takes a while for the reader to realise that this book has far more depth than they first imagined. It bobs along at a steady pace, full of dazzling wit, humour and charm. It has an unmistakable old-fashioned Englishness about it - all tea time and "goodness gracious" - which works very well with the time and setting. But still, it was far from boring. It is too charming and well-written to be boring, and I could hardly put it down once I became absorbed in the characters' stories which didn't take long at all. This novel seems to gather layers as it goes. One minute you're sipping tea and enjoying the relationship dynamics, and the next you suddenly look back and realise that this quiet little wartime story has become steeped in philosophical detail, without seeming pretentious or too try-hard. Such a wonderful read and highly recommended. View all 31 comments. Mar 08, Anne rated it really liked it Shelves: britain , , fiction , favorites. So much great writing and characterization. Such an interesting premise and structure. Wonderful use of humor and irony thank you, Teresa throughout. Remarkable depictions of The Blitz. I want to give this book 5 stars. But I can't. A bit of editing would have helped. It's very difficult to go back over the same territory over and over again and keep it interesting. Atkinson did this amazingly well, tho there were moments of, "oh not this again. No way. It just would not have happened. And Atkinson didn't make me believe that it happened. Yes, Eva Braun had friends, but how did Ursula and Eva meet and how would Ursula have been allowed to visit one of the most heavily guarded places during the war? These sections lost me; they felt lifeless. My suspension of disbelief became overtaxed. This section reminded me of Woody Allen in his movie Zelig, suddenly and surprisingly showing up in various historical moments. That worked. Perhaps because it was comical. This didn't work because we're actually supposed to believe it. Reading the book was like jumping out of an airplane and enjoying the ride most of it , trusting that the landing will be a good one. Well, the parachute opened, but very late. The landing was abrupt. I think I still feel concussed. I just closed the book and I'm wondering, "what just happened? Maybe the outcome would be better the second or third or fourth time around. View all 50 comments. Dec 06, Melissa rated it it was ok Shelves: , wwii. I'm embarrassed to say I didn't really understand this book. I'm a huge Kate Atkinson fan and I think she's one of the most creative writers I've ever read. And I loved the idea of this book: Ursula is born, dies, and is born again, living different -sometimes very different - versions of her life over and over again. One of my problems is that there didn't seem to be any "rules" like there usually are in books about time travel and other magical occurrences. Sometime Ursula seems to remember th I'm embarrassed to say I didn't really understand this book. Sometime Ursula seems to remember the past versions of her life, sometimes she seems not to. Sometimes things change drastically, sometimes not so much. I found that confusing and sometimes hard to follow. And the unfortunately at the end I lost track of which life she was in and totally didn't understand what happened! I'm going to have to go read some of the other reviews and see if they can shed any light on it for me! View all 38 comments. Jul 13, Fabian rated it really liked it. But no problem. It is optimistic in the face of oblivion. View all 8 comments. Mar 05, Steve rated it it was amazing. It was February of when baby Ursula died at birth, but she was granted a narrative do-over. Next time the doctor made it through the snowstorm to sever the umbilical cord that was strangling her. She also got another chance after tumbling from the roof trying to reach a doll her malignant older brother had thrown there. Similar life after death sequences played out after a seaside drowning, the Spanish flu, and various war-time atrocities. Some might call this a gimmick, but that seems too pejorative a term to me. A better analogy might be how we navigate our way through a maze, proceeding until we reach a dead end and backtracking to the point where we can follow a different path. With the maze, we know where the decision points are. Atkinson scored literary points for the artful abstractions of these foggy memories. Before I get too carried away with the device, which I suspect had to do with a huge inventory of ready-to-use death scenes Atkinson wanted to employ ;- , I should mention what I consider to be even better selling points: the story, the characters and the setting. As fans of her Jackson Brodie books will attest, Atkinson is a master of crime drama. She was not about to short-shrift us on plot. Her relationships with men got appreciably better in later iterations once she got past her teenage naivety and some very unwelcome advances. Many of the most poignant storylines derived from the hardship of the setting — England spanning the two world wars. Ursula herself was insightful, empathetic, philosophical and poetic. Friends and co-workers were given enough personality to be interesting, too. That was even true of the German ones. Speaking of Germans, there was one in particular that authors of do-overs consistently wish dead. It is a fascinating question, even if over-asked. What if he had been killed before he had influence? How many lives would have been spared? What would our culture be like had there been no Holocaust? Or, as Ursula wondered, what if the US had not spent its way out of the Depression during the war and become the dominant purveyor of goods and lifestyles. Cheeky lady, implying it would be better. But I have to ask: how fast would her food be now? And how much reality would her TV feature? I really liked this book. But this one felt right. In a time when life was too easily lost, in a place where the war seeped into too many homes, it seemed appropriate that a work of fiction would offer some therapeutic revamping. All the more so after Atkinson personalized it for us, putting a likable lady with multifold potential in the middle of it all. View all 74 comments. Feb 28, switterbug Betsey rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites , favorite-books-i-have-reviewed , booker-material. The snake devouring its tail is an ancient symbol of wholeness, infinity, renewal, and eternal return. It symbolizes the cyclic nature of the universe, creation out of destruction, life after death. Likewise, the famous Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung, advanced the concept of the Shadow self, the parts of your self that are hidden from society. The process of becoming whole, psychically, is to integrate the unconscious Shadow and conscious selves, through deep meditation, dreams, or long journey The snake devouring its tail is an ancient symbol of wholeness, infinity, renewal, and eternal return. The process of becoming whole, psychically, is to integrate the unconscious Shadow and conscious selves, through deep meditation, dreams, or long journeys that build awareness. If this seems too much of an academic introduction to the brilliantly epochal novel by Kate Atkinson, it is also a reference to the finely calibrated structure and themes of life Atkinson time travels her narrative back to Feb 11, , repeatedly, so that her protagonist, Ursula Todd, can return again and again to rebirth and renewal. Right from the beginning, Ursula dies quickly after birth. Then she returns. Dies rather quickly again. In subsequent lives, she may take longer to die. But through each of these lives, we learn a lot more about Ursula. And, so does Ursula learn more about herself. For example, after a tragedy in one life, Ursula tends to feel a sense of something, or a chill, when the tragedy is coming close in the next life, and can often do something to prevent its reocurrence, even though she is not quite sure why she is doing it. Atkinson did it with such holographic clarity that I wondered how it had not been done a thousand times before in literature. There is certainly a purpose to this structure, but it isn't mechanical or expeditious. You may be scratching your head, wondering as you read, but you will settle in before long. The novel is so dynamic, and initially winsome and subtly tongue-in-cheek , that you feel in the bosom of it, not at arm's length or outside the story. Is it a gimmick? No, it is the anchor. It doesn't seem segmented or choppy; rather, it all integrates, like Jung's concept. Ursula's darkness penetrates to a metaphysical undertaking, and the reader is side by side with her odyssey. The author captures Ursula's moments of life-to-death- to-life enchantingly, yet poignantly, and the cycles nourish the theme of the story. Those in-between moments of life and death pique reader understanding, too. Her frequent returns don't feel repetitive, because Atkinson brings acuity and new observations for the reader to ponder. The darkness enveloped her, a velvet friend. Snow was in the air, as fine as talcum, as icy as the east wind on a baby's skin The settings s of the novel preside like a primary character, one in which repeated experience manifests deeper understanding. Like Ursula, I am inclined to return, time and again, and let the pages encircle me into the "black bat of darkness" and the snow blazing white of day. It's like a View all 26 comments. I believe everyone would love a chance to go back and change things in their past. Correct mistakes in order to change their life or their loved ones lives for the better. But changing one thing may only lead to a new problem……then you have to go back, change the first mistake, then the second one, and so on. She is born on a snowy night in February , but since she is born with no doctor present, and with the umbilical cord around her neck she never breaths a breath. Ursula is born on a snowy night in February ; the doctor makes it in time to save the little girl from nearly straggling on her own umbilical cord. If they are amiable, you can choose to share with them your food, ammo and adventure stories. With the trusted friends you made along the way, you can find a place to camp and build, one brick at a time, until you have the final sanctuary for humanity. Together, around the campfire, humans may once again fend off the long, cold night with hugs. Reviews Review Policy. This is Radio transmitting across all AM frequencies, calling all survivors. Brand new outfit "Homerunner" is now available for purchase in the Mall. Improved the material tracking feature. Now it's possible to quickly track and calculate the amount of materials you need to craft an item. Affected by the hurricane, Santopany will experience sustained typhoons and rainfalls, with hurricane landfalls occurring every once in a while. View details. Though in her incarnation Ursula speculates with her nephew on this "might have been", the book avoids giving a clear answer. Alex Clark of The Guardian gave Life After Life a positive review, saying that domestic details of daily life are conveyed beautifully, and that traumatic shifts in British society are also captured well "precisely because she cuts directly from one war to the next, only later going back to fill in, partially, what happened in between. Life After Life gives us a heroine whose fictional underpinning is permanently exposed, whose artificial status is never in doubt; and yet one who feels painfully, horribly real to us. He said the high-concept premise of "Ursula [contriving] to avoid the accident that previously killed her [ But Sacks also said that "she [brings] characters to life with enviable ease", referring to the erosion of Sylvie and Hugh's marriage as "poignantly charted". Also, like Maslin, he lauded the novella-length Blitz chapter as "gorgeous and nerve-racking". In NPR , novelist Meg Wolitzer suggested that the book proves that "a fully- realized world" is more important to the success of a fiction work than the progression of its story, and dubbed it a "major, serious yet playfully experimental novel". She argued that by not choosing one path for Ursula, Atkinson "opened her novel outward, letting it breathe unrestricted". The Guardian 's Sam Jordison expressed mixed feelings. He commended the depiction of Ursula and her family, and Atkinson's "fine storytelling and sharp eye for domestic detail". He argued, "There is real playfulness in these revisited moments and repetition never breeds dullness. Instead, we try to spot the differences and look for refractions of the same scene, considering the permutations of what is said and done. It can provide an enjoyable and interactive experience. There is much to enjoy — but not quite enough to admire. But in a decade where the real world swung between wars and elections, there are few more clarifying literary escapes than Life After Life. It was listed one of the decade's top ten fiction works by Time , where it was billed as "a defining account of wartime London, as Ursula experiences the devastation of the Blitz from various perspectives, highlighting the senselessness of bombing raids. It won the Costa Book Awards Novel. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Novel by Kate Atkinson. The Independent UK. Life After Life (Todd Family, #1) by Kate Atkinson

No idea. The author gives us no clue. Why is she born again after completing her apparent reason for being born. The author gives us no idea. Kate Atkinson writes perfectly fine prose. Often its quite good, and she captures wartime England very convincingly and even gives us engaging characters. Nonetheless, this is a deeply, deeply stupid book, and I can only suggest for it people who don't give a damn about coherent plot, but are just satisfied by pretty words. Everyone else should stay away. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. What if you could live again and again, until you got it right? On a cold and snowy night in , 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 die What if you could live again and again, until you got it right? 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? Get A Copy. Hardcover , pages. More Details Original Title. Todd Family 1. Ursula Todd. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Life After Life , please sign up. Lucy Your writing style and punctuation give an indication that the book may simply be too intelligent for you. What about the scene when Ursula is 13, I think, and visiting Izzie in London. Izzie is driving and busy turning the car around for some reason, and meanwhile Ursula sees her mother emerge from a hotel, wearing her mink coat, on the arm of a well-dressed man. I read the kindle version, so I haven't been able to go back yet and find that part. I don't think we ever get an explanation for that scene. Ksboydie Hi Anne, we were just discussing this at book club last week. I got this chill when I read one of the last chapters and the author seemed to suggest t …more Hi Anne, we were just discussing this at book club last week. I got this chill when I read one of the last chapters and the author seemed to suggest that Sylvie has the same ability as Ursula does to live her life over. Re-read the last description of Ursula's birth - Sylvie is prepared for the fact that Ursula will have the cord tied around her neck with her surgical scissors. The last line of that chapter is 'Practice makes perfect. Just a hypothosis because Atkinson doesn't explore this in any depth. See all 61 questions about Life After Life…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right? Ursula Todd is born in a snowstorm in England in but dies before she can take her first breath. During that same snowstorm she was born again and lives to tell the tale; again and again. This book is getting so many rave reviews, I feel like I am a black sheep just telling people it did not work. As I said before, there is nothing wrong with the writing; Kate Atkinson has created this lyrical narrative and I did find myself being swept away in the words. I even felt like at times I was reading this book without thinking about what was happening; a few times I had to stop and process before continuing. I did feel like Kate Atkinson did however overdo the twists and it turned out to be a roundabout way to retell the same story over and over again with different outcomes. Life after Life is the kind of book you should probably read in a real cold climate; the snowy, dark and sometimes bleakness of the novel seems to call for it. What is this, Miami Beach? I really wanted to enjoy this book; I will try another Kate Atkinson novel because I really think she has a great style. Just so happened Life after Life was not for me and I know people loved this book and will probably complain about this review but at least it was just an excuse to put some Groundhog Day quotes into something. View all comments. Karyn Zister I also found this challenging. I was happy to have read it on an e-reader so I could easily search and go back to remind myself of who people where or I also found this challenging. I was happy to have read it on an e-reader so I could easily search and go back to remind myself of who people where or the context at the time. Adoniyah Happy birthday to you cha Oct 20, AM. I wanted to like this book. I wish I could enjoy it. I bought it with such enthusiasm, and couldn't wait to start reading it. But alas, I sensed almost at the very start that it wasn't going to be a happy relationship - a point confirmed by mid-way through the book. The length, the repetitive scenes, the incredible number of times Ursula dies and is reborn, are all tedious and terrible torment to get through. Surely Atkinson could show I wanted to like this book. Surely Atkinson could show the courtesy of not subjecting her readers to so many repetitive scenarios. I cannot fault Atkinson's writing nor do I have any particular dislike for her characters I rather liked Izzy the best. But the plot lost my interest fairly early on and by the end, I positively wanted to hurl it at a wall I didn't. I'm rather fond of my walls. My apologies for offending anyone with this review. I understand our tastes are subjective and many simply adore this book. But I'm not one of them. View all 80 comments. Dec 19, karen rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites , real-people-fake-stories , death-is-not- the-end , from-publisher-or-author , distant-lands. On the way back from lunch, Sylvie said she wanted to visit Oberpollingers and buy a present for Hugh. When they reached the department store they found the windows daubed with anti-Jewish slogans and Sylvie said, "Gracious, what a mess. Not Sylvie, who had marched past the Brownshirts while Ursula reluctantly trailed in her wake into the store and up the thickly carpeted staircase. In the face of the uniforms, Ursula had shrugged a cartoon helplessness and murmured rather shamefacedly, "She's English. We only have one after all, we should try and do our best. We can never get it right , but we must try. View all 75 comments. When finally he did, he had to swerve like crazy, right into the oncoming traffic. What with his seatbelt not being properly secured and the 30 ton lorry, darkness fell rapidly. Stupid boy racer! He thought as he made a violent emergency stop. When he did finally get home he parked as usual round the corner, got out of his car and was delighted to be confronted with one of the urban foxes which visited Sherwood occasionally. Such elegant raffish creatures. But there seemed to be something agitating this particular one. It was moving side to side and then turning right round in some distress. What was wrong with it? Suddenly it lunged towards him, nipped him on the ankle and rushed away. He thought about the disturbing incident later that evening as he sat at his computer and began his review. But then he began to feel most peculiar. Darkness fell — again. Why not? Let him cause a fatal crash somewhere else. When he got home, as he opened the car door he was confronted with one of the urban foxes who visited Sherwood occasionally. But this one looked a little strange. Thinking it might possibly be rabid, he gave it a blare on the car horn and it ran off. This one seemed to be right above his house. What a racket. Suddenly, the noise stopped. Darkness fell quite quickly. The review. How about this. Apr 21, Emily Books with Emily Fox rated it really liked it. I love book about someone reliving their lives over and over and this one was no exception! Historical fiction this time and finally with a main female character. The first half was my favorite but if you usually enjoy WW2 historical fiction you'll enjoy the book for sure. It was a slow but captivating read, my only complain is the ending! View all 13 comments. Oh dear dear dear dear dear! Obviously I'm on another planet to all the other reviewers here, but try as I might, I simply had to give up on page The concept of constant re-births and lives was a good one but sadly, for me,the incidents throughout were so tame and tepid, and the characters that popped into Ursula's lives were so boring, I'm afraid the whole thing was like watching paint dry. Remember that feeling of rushing to get back to a book to read what happens next? T Oh dear dear dear dear dear! This was the exact opposite - dreaded picking it up, and trying to dredge up some interest in this conglomeration of non-entities! Now you're talking. View all 53 comments. Ursula Todd is born in the midst of a blizzard in , not once, but many times, during the course of her life - living only to die and be born again, repeatedly, traveling many paths until she lives the life she was meant to live. Kate Atkinson's writing is superb, and lyrical enough that it carried me through to the end of this book. The plot, however, left me floundering for weeks, trying desperately to claw my way to the end of this depressing tale. While the premise - reincarnation and dest Ursula Todd is born in the midst of a blizzard in , not once, but many times, during the course of her life - living only to die and be born again, repeatedly, traveling many paths until she lives the life she was meant to live. While the premise - reincarnation and destiny - is interesting, the execution left me frustrated. The early chapters of the book are very short, as Ursula is born, dies, and is reborn again with rapid succession. With each successive life, she lives longer in most cases and is developed more and more as a character. The choppy format of the early chapters make it difficult to get attached to Ursula, but as she lives longer, it becomes more and more apparent that she lives a sad, depressing life. In addition, as a result of her continued rebirth, it's difficult to become attached to her, or to feel any real regret or sadness at her passing. Also strange is that, as often as you meet them throughout Ursula's life, her siblings never really become fully realized characters. As they move in and out of her life, these siblings play important roles in the paths she follows, yet they remain rather one-dimensional, as though Atkinson couldn't be bothered to spend the time on them. The book was also a bit too meandering in its plot. Lives that led no where interesting or important wandered on for far too long, while lives that seemed to be leading somewhere ended abruptly, only to pick up again to follow another pointless path. Perhaps this was Atkinson's exploration of the capricious nature of fate, but it made for some rough reading. About pages of this novel could have been trimmed and it would only have improved the quality. Forty of those hundred pages should have been the last forty of the book - the last few "lives" lived by Ursula were confusing and unnecessary to the novel. All in all, the writing was exactly what you'd expect from Atkinson wonderful , but the story itself was confusing, lifeless, and somewhat empty. A hundred fewer pages, a different ending, and more fully fleshed-out secondary characters would have resulted in a 4 star book for me. I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for a review. View all 22 comments. Apr 02, Will Byrnes rated it it was amazing Shelves: fantasy , books-of-the-year , fiction. Kill off your heroine, early and often, while offering a look at the history of England from to the s. Gotta go. Now, where were we, a review? Yes, I seem to recall something about that. More of a feeling really. So, England, 20th century, perils of Pauline, well in this case Ursula, little bear, of Fox Corner, the manse of a well-to-do sort, not Downton rich, but, you know, comfortable. She has a prat of an older brother and a decent elder sis, with a couple of brothers arriving later. Kate Atkinson - from The Telegraph Life is full of decision points. Walk this way, survive, walk that way and splat. It begins early with Ursula, who is offed before her first breath the first time around. She gets a better deal on the next go, managing to remain with us into childhood, and so on. The structure seems to employ the backstitch a fair bit, starting Ursula up a few chronological paces before the deadly decision point. She seems to be born again more than an entire congregation of fundamentalist Christians, or, maybe more likely a band of Buddhists, as she seems to pick up a bit of wisdom, a bit of strength with each reincarnation. I counted 15 passings-on, but sure, I could have missed one or two. The lady must have G. Reaper on her autodial. What if I had done this instead of that? How might that have changed the outcomes? One can imagine the fun, and challenge an author experiences. Taking her main character, and plenty of secondary characters as well, in one direction then another, then another. It must mimic, to a degree, the authorial process. What if I do this to Ursula? What might happen? What if I point her in a different direction? And as for stuff happening, while it is usually pretty calm here, writing while on a bench in Prospect Park, I must admit I have never seen tentacles that size emerging from anywhere let alone the very modest Park Lake. The slurping sounds are getting rather loud. That sumbitch is faster than he looks…Gotta go. Of course the desktop has been a bit dodgy of late, but no big whup. I will dip into the special Kona stash, brew up a nice cuppa and set to, shoes off, no shirt. Maybe a nice bagel with butter and strawberry preserves. Review, yes, Atkinson, Ursula, do-overs. Oh yeah, it does call to mind a bit of Groundhog Day , although Phil the Weatherman knew early on that he was coming back each time. Not Ursula, although as time goes on she does develop a bit of a sixth sense about some things. And the other major difference here is that Life After Life takes on some heftier purpose than Phil getting the girl and becoming a better person. Ursula is faced with some immediate challenges, like evading a rapist, a girl-killer, those annoying Nazi bombs during the blitz, not falling out windows, you know, stuff. But she also must contend with moral choices, and larger scale. Not only figuring out what the right thing is to do and then deciding, for her life, but thinking about how events affect other people, the nation, maybe the world. What sort of life does she want to lead? How can she help the most people? What sort of person does she want to be? Can she make an impact beyond her immediate concerns? And within that context, others face similar choices. Ursula is not the only one with multiple exit scenes. There are plenty in the chorus of secondary characters who come and go, or should that be go and come back in varying iterations. What if so- and-so did A this time and B the next? How might that change things? This is part of the fun of the book. Excuse me a moment, Nala, sweetie, off the desk please. I will be happy to scratch you. No, do not rub up against my coffee cup. Too late, brown milky liquid splatters from the cup on the desk, rushing over the top of the desktop tower, which is sitting on the floor between desk and couch. I get up to fetch some paper towels. Maybe I should have worn slippers. I step away from the desk chair, contact enough wet to matter, and only feel it for moment when my body hair begins to ignite and my heart goes into highly charged spasms. I hear the beginning of a scream and then…. Seems a lovely morning for some reviewing. Rainy out? Well, not yet, but you can feel it coming. So, open a few windows. Sit at the desk. Maybe not. Might be a bit too much breeze there. Maybe the couch for a change. Yeah, book, they killed Kenny. You bastards! And I was, on, oh, page of the manuscript and still in the s. A Visit from the Goon Squad is one of the more dramatic of that sort. The rise of the novel comprised of linked stories has seen a boom in popularity. And so it is with Life After Life. While the notion of reincarnation is hardly new in fiction, how it is handled here is far beyond what we have seen before, a real risk-taking. And so effective. Ursula is a very engaging character. Each time she comes back, you want her to stick around. And even when she makes bad choices you will be rooting for her to fix those in the next round. Her sister Pamela seems as decent a sort as their brother Maurice seems insufferable, maybe a bit too insufferable. I found it to be entirely engaging, and was always sad when Ursula went dark yet again. The book opens with her taking aim at the worst baddie of the 20th century and you will keep hoping she finds her way back to that place and completes the mission. Will she? One of the most riveting and memorable elements in Life After Life is the description of London during the Blitz, on the ground, you-are-there, offering considerable nightmare material, and making it clear just how hardy the survivors must have been, and how fragile the hold on life, whichever iteration a person is in. The best part of the book, for me. There are many uses of animal references here. Ursula means little bear, The family name, Todd, means Fox. A group of Nazi wives is referred to as a wolf pack. Actual foxes move in and out of the story, residents of Fox Corner, the Todd family home. A German is named Fuchs which also means fox. There are more. A warden during the Blitz is named Woolf. At one point, Atkinson offers a wink and a nod to readers as her characters discuss time travel questions. There is much consideration here of the role and rights of women in the first half of the 20th century, and the changes in mores that marked the era. The difference between love and gratitude when considering marriage is considered. The effect of World War I on the nation is noted as well, the loss of a generation of men in the war, and the loss of vast numbers from both genders from the Spanish flu. While florid passages do not characterize the novel, there are some wonderful descriptions. Against the backdrop of black night the fires that had been started burned in a huge variety of colors—scarlet and gold and orange, indigo and a sickly lemon. Occasionally vivid greens and blues would shoot up where something chemical had caught fire. Savage and strangely magnificent. Yes it is. Now that the task is done, I think I will bring in a glass of juice and have some of these lovely hard sourdough pretzels. Maybe catch something from the DVR. Always loved these pretzels, except, of course, when bits get stuck going down. Sometimes large bits, uh oh, a very large bit…trying to self-Heimlich, but no go, hitting my head on the edge of the coffee table as I stumble and fall while trying to stand up. Maybe if I can get some liquid in there it will soften it, but the noggin-knock and the inability to get any air makes decision-making a tough go. The link to the second part is at the bottom of this one. View all 58 comments. May 29, Jason rated it it was ok Shelves: for-kindle , wine-club , , reviewed. Ursula Todd is an English-born nobody. This is not a spoiler, by the way. The assassination occurs on page one. The hundreds of lives it takes for her to get to that point occur on pages two through five hundred twenty-nine. But truthfully, most of the time the modification occurs on its own without her having to do anything at all. And that is what is most bothersome to me, I think besides her dull personality. It is exhausting to read about a woman dying over and over again only to be reborn right back where she started, and all without seeming to have any input into anything whatsoever. She just goes along with the program, a plastic bag beaten about by the wind. Is she a mother this time around? A spinster? And then you start to realize that who cares. In fact the only time she ever starts to make real decisions is toward the end of the novel after she has lived a ludicrous number of lives, and are we supposed to be at this point rooting for her? Good grief. Also, the character interactions, which is something I usually enjoy in novels, is pretty nonexistent here. Reading this book ultimately became tiresome to me, which is not really how you want your reading experience to go. View all 41 comments. I'm pretty sure the idea of being forced to live my life over and over again is something plucked from my worst nightmares, but who among us hasn't been at least tempted to dream of it occasionally with a wistful sigh. Please, please, please, just one more chance to live the best moments again and when necessary, to make different choices? But I would imagine if any of us were actually tasked to unravel all the "right" and "wrong" choices from our life and to relive the bad with the good, we'd g I'm pretty sure the idea of being forced to live my life over and over again is something plucked from my worst nightmares, but who among us hasn't been at least tempted to dream of it occasionally with a wistful sigh. But I would imagine if any of us were actually tasked to unravel all the "right" and "wrong" choices from our life and to relive the bad with the good, we'd go screaming into the night like raving banshees. For what is a perfect life? How many kicks at the can would it take for you to answer that question, if it is indeed answerable at all? Change one thing, change everything, change nothing, change all the good, change all the bad. Survivors have to hug a nearby tree or enter a safe house to take shelter. It will be a major renovation for the game's underlying architecture. Survivors of different Combat Levels may face different Special Infected, randomly chosen according to level ranges. LifeAfter is today revealing a new map section called Mount Snow. At the foot of the snow-covered mountain lies the base of Scientia, which has lost all activity and order and is now instead filled with a dreadful silence. It is up to the survivors to uncover its hidden secrets. When you finally caught a break, and discovered a place to rest your sore feet, you found yourself exhausted, famished, low on ammo and plagued by the coldness of night. You can hear the growling of Infecteds, approaching, and you know it's going to be another night of angst and horror. How much longer can YOU survive? LifeAfter, a mobile game depicting the survival of humanity in a post virus apocalyptic world, is officially launched. Live on, together. The world you once knew so well is now a foreign place in the wave of a virus epidemic. The life of survivors is constantly being threatened by diseases, famine, cold, Infecteds and organizations with hidden agendas. You'll have to stay calm amid all these dangers and believe there is a way out. Explore every inch of the post-apocalyptic world - be it in the city full of Infecteds, or an abandoned mine, or a broken-down college, or a freezing cold forest up in the highlands - to scavenge essential materials in order to survive. You'll need to know how to hunt and gather for food, how to tend to your wounds and make arms to protect yourself. NPR Choice page

The second, A God in Ruins , was published in Life After Life garnered acclaim from critics. The novel has an unusual structure, repeatedly looping back in time to describe alternative possible lives for its central character, Ursula Todd, who is born on 11 February to an upper-middle-class family near Chalfont St Peter in Buckinghamshire. In the first version, she is strangled by her umbilical cord and stillborn. In later iterations of her life she dies as a child - drowning in the sea, or when saved from that, by falling to her death from the roof when trying to retrieve a fallen doll. Then there are several sequences when she falls victim to the Spanish flu epidemic of - which repeats itself again and again, though she already has a foreknowledge of it, and only her fourth attempt to avert catching the flu succeeds. Then there is an unhappy life where she is traumatized by being raped, getting pregnant and undergoing an illegal abortion, and finally becoming trapped in a highly oppressive marriage, and being killed by her abusive husband when trying to escape. In later lives she averts all this by being preemptively aggressive to the would-be rapist. In between, she also uses her half-memory of earlier lives to avert the neighbour girl Nancy being raped and murdered by a child molester. The saved Nancy would have an important role in Ursula's later life s , forming a deep love relationship with Ursula's brother Teddy, and would become a main character in the sequel, A God in Ruins. Still later iterations of Ursula's life take her into World War Two , where she works in London for the War Office and repeatedly witnesses the results of the Blitz including a direct hit on a bomb shelter in Argyll Road in November - with herself being among the victims in some lives and among the rescuers in others. There is also a life in which she marries a German in , is unable to return to England and experiences the war in Berlin under the allied bombings. Ursula eventually comes to realize, through a particularly strong sense of deja vu , that she has lived before, and decides to try to prevent the war by killing Adolf Hitler in late What is left unclear - since each of the time sequences end with "darkness" and Ursula's death and does not show what followed - is whether in fact all these lives actually occurred in an objective world, or were only subjectively experienced by her. Specifically, whether or not her killing Hitler in actually produced an altered timeline where the Nazis did not take power in Germany, or possibly took power under a different leader with a different course of the Second World War. Though in her incarnation Ursula speculates with her nephew on this "might have been", the book avoids giving a clear answer. Alex Clark of The Guardian gave Life After Life a positive review, saying that domestic details of daily life are conveyed beautifully, and that traumatic shifts in British society are also captured well "precisely because she cuts directly from one war to the next, only later going back to fill in, partially, what happened in between. Life After Life gives us a heroine whose fictional underpinning is permanently exposed, whose artificial status is never in doubt; and yet one who feels painfully, horribly real to us. He said the high-concept premise of "Ursula [contriving] to avoid the accident that previously killed her [ But Sacks also said that "she [brings] characters to life with enviable ease", referring to the erosion of Sylvie and Hugh's marriage as "poignantly charted". Also, like Maslin, he lauded the novella-length Blitz chapter as "gorgeous and nerve-racking". In NPR , novelist Meg Wolitzer suggested that the book proves that "a fully-realized world" is more important to the success of a fiction work than the progression of its story, and dubbed it a "major, serious yet playfully experimental novel". She argued that by not choosing one path for Ursula, Atkinson "opened her novel outward, letting it breathe unrestricted". The Guardian 's Sam Jordison expressed mixed feelings. He commended the depiction of Ursula and her family, and Atkinson's "fine storytelling and sharp eye for domestic detail". He argued, "There is real playfulness in these revisited moments and repetition never breeds dullness. Instead, we try to spot the differences and look for refractions of the same scene, considering the permutations of what is said and done. It can provide an enjoyable and interactive experience. There is much to enjoy — but not quite enough to admire. But in a decade where the real world swung between wars and elections, there are few more clarifying literary escapes than Life After Life. What if I had done this instead of that? How might that have changed the outcomes? One can imagine the fun, and challenge an author experiences. Taking her main character, and plenty of secondary characters as well, in one direction then another, then another. It must mimic, to a degree, the authorial process. What if I do this to Ursula? What might happen? What if I point her in a different direction? And as for stuff happening, while it is usually pretty calm here, writing while on a bench in Prospect Park, I must admit I have never seen tentacles that size emerging from anywhere let alone the very modest Park Lake. The slurping sounds are getting rather loud. That sumbitch is faster than he looks…Gotta go. Of course the desktop has been a bit dodgy of late, but no big whup. I will dip into the special Kona stash, brew up a nice cuppa and set to, shoes off, no shirt. Maybe a nice bagel with butter and strawberry preserves. Review, yes, Atkinson, Ursula, do-overs. Oh yeah, it does call to mind a bit of Groundhog Day , although Phil the Weatherman knew early on that he was coming back each time. Not Ursula, although as time goes on she does develop a bit of a sixth sense about some things. And the other major difference here is that Life After Life takes on some heftier purpose than Phil getting the girl and becoming a better person. Ursula is faced with some immediate challenges, like evading a rapist, a girl-killer, those annoying Nazi bombs during the blitz, not falling out windows, you know, stuff. But she also must contend with moral choices, and larger scale. Not only figuring out what the right thing is to do and then deciding, for her life, but thinking about how events affect other people, the nation, maybe the world. What sort of life does she want to lead? How can she help the most people? What sort of person does she want to be? Can she make an impact beyond her immediate concerns? And within that context, others face similar choices. Ursula is not the only one with multiple exit scenes. There are plenty in the chorus of secondary characters who come and go, or should that be go and come back in varying iterations. What if so-and-so did A this time and B the next? How might that change things? This is part of the fun of the book. Excuse me a moment, Nala, sweetie, off the desk please. I will be happy to scratch you. No, do not rub up against my coffee cup. Too late, brown milky liquid splatters from the cup on the desk, rushing over the top of the desktop tower, which is sitting on the floor between desk and couch. I get up to fetch some paper towels. Maybe I should have worn slippers. I step away from the desk chair, contact enough wet to matter, and only feel it for moment when my body hair begins to ignite and my heart goes into highly charged spasms. I hear the beginning of a scream and then…. Seems a lovely morning for some reviewing. Rainy out? Well, not yet, but you can feel it coming. So, open a few windows. Sit at the desk. Maybe not. Might be a bit too much breeze there. Maybe the couch for a change. Yeah, book, they killed Kenny. You bastards! And I was, on, oh, page of the manuscript and still in the s. A Visit from the Goon Squad is one of the more dramatic of that sort. The rise of the novel comprised of linked stories has seen a boom in popularity. And so it is with Life After Life. While the notion of reincarnation is hardly new in fiction, how it is handled here is far beyond what we have seen before, a real risk-taking. And so effective. Ursula is a very engaging character. Each time she comes back, you want her to stick around. And even when she makes bad choices you will be rooting for her to fix those in the next round. Her sister Pamela seems as decent a sort as their brother Maurice seems insufferable, maybe a bit too insufferable. I found it to be entirely engaging, and was always sad when Ursula went dark yet again. The book opens with her taking aim at the worst baddie of the 20th century and you will keep hoping she finds her way back to that place and completes the mission. Will she? One of the most riveting and memorable elements in Life After Life is the description of London during the Blitz, on the ground, you-are-there, offering considerable nightmare material, and making it clear just how hardy the survivors must have been, and how fragile the hold on life, whichever iteration a person is in. The best part of the book, for me. There are many uses of animal references here. Ursula means little bear, The family name, Todd, means Fox. A group of Nazi wives is referred to as a wolf pack. Actual foxes move in and out of the story, residents of Fox Corner, the Todd family home. A German is named Fuchs which also means fox. There are more. A warden during the Blitz is named Woolf. At one point, Atkinson offers a wink and a nod to readers as her characters discuss time travel questions. There is much consideration here of the role and rights of women in the first half of the 20th century, and the changes in mores that marked the era. The difference between love and gratitude when considering marriage is considered. The effect of World War I on the nation is noted as well, the loss of a generation of men in the war, and the loss of vast numbers from both genders from the Spanish flu. While florid passages do not characterize the novel, there are some wonderful descriptions. Against the backdrop of black night the fires that had been started burned in a huge variety of colors—scarlet and gold and orange, indigo and a sickly lemon. Occasionally vivid greens and blues would shoot up where something chemical had caught fire. Savage and strangely magnificent. Yes it is. Now that the task is done, I think I will bring in a glass of juice and have some of these lovely hard sourdough pretzels. Maybe catch something from the DVR. Always loved these pretzels, except, of course, when bits get stuck going down. Sometimes large bits, uh oh, a very large bit…trying to self-Heimlich, but no go, hitting my head on the edge of the coffee table as I stumble and fall while trying to stand up. Maybe if I can get some liquid in there it will soften it, but the noggin-knock and the inability to get any air makes decision-making a tough go. The link to the second part is at the bottom of this one. View all 58 comments. May 29, Jason rated it it was ok Shelves: for-kindle , wine-club , , reviewed. Ursula Todd is an English-born nobody. This is not a spoiler, by the way. The assassination occurs on page one. The hundreds of lives it takes for her to get to that point occur on pages two through five hundred twenty-nine. But truthfully, most of the time the modification occurs on its own without her having to do anything at all. And that is what is most bothersome to me, I think besides her dull personality. It is exhausting to read about a woman dying over and over again only to be reborn right back where she started, and all without seeming to have any input into anything whatsoever. She just goes along with the program, a plastic bag beaten about by the wind. Is she a mother this time around? A spinster? And then you start to realize that who cares. In fact the only time she ever starts to make real decisions is toward the end of the novel after she has lived a ludicrous number of lives, and are we supposed to be at this point rooting for her? Good grief. Also, the character interactions, which is something I usually enjoy in novels, is pretty nonexistent here. Reading this book ultimately became tiresome to me, which is not really how you want your reading experience to go. View all 41 comments. I'm pretty sure the idea of being forced to live my life over and over again is something plucked from my worst nightmares, but who among us hasn't been at least tempted to dream of it occasionally with a wistful sigh. Please, please, please, just one more chance to live the best moments again and when necessary, to make different choices? But I would imagine if any of us were actually tasked to unravel all the "right" and "wrong" choices from our life and to relive the bad with the good, we'd g I'm pretty sure the idea of being forced to live my life over and over again is something plucked from my worst nightmares, but who among us hasn't been at least tempted to dream of it occasionally with a wistful sigh. But I would imagine if any of us were actually tasked to unravel all the "right" and "wrong" choices from our life and to relive the bad with the good, we'd go screaming into the night like raving banshees. For what is a perfect life? How many kicks at the can would it take for you to answer that question, if it is indeed answerable at all? Change one thing, change everything, change nothing, change all the good, change all the bad. Round and round and round. It's exhausting just thinking about it. What's the saying? If I only knew then, what I know now What would you do different? And would different choices always translate into better choices? Ursula is a normal British girl except she's pretty certain she's lived her life before, maybe many, many times. The older she gets, the stronger these feelings of deju vu become, hounding her like ghosts in the night. Her prescience is rarely crystal clear, more like moods or instinct. Do this. Don't do that. Run away. Run toward. Stay still. Life After Life starts slow and unassuming. The story is teasing, the pacing a dawdling, scenic walk through the English countryside. But from the very first page I was enthralled and little did I realize what a powerful spell Atkinson was casting on my reader brain. Because as you continue to read, the book picks up gravity and speed and texture. Each life after life reinforces the tender bonds you have been working on with each of the characters. Your acquaintance with them is not one brief life, but many, many lives. Like Ursula we are both cursed and blessed with the long view, the big picture. We come to know all the various permutations of death, cruelty, love and loss. We bear witness through two World Wars and how some forces, no matter how forewarned, are unstoppable, greater even than the hand of time. This is a very English story, and is steeped in pre historical detail. Not ever having watched an episode of Downton Abbey I'll go out on a limb here and suggest fans of that show will love this novel for its acute sense of time and attention to detail. Atkinson is ruthless in her pursuit for authenticity. This is wartime England, no time to pussyfoot around. This has got to be right , and in her quest I believe she succeeds magnificently. The details are small but glorious, and paint such an intimate portrait you will feel absorbed into Ursula's quiet family life where there are disagreements and births, and jealousies and forgiveness. Yes, there is the rumble of the earth as the German bombs fall during the Blitz, but such terrible moments co-exist with the stark ordinariness of a life lived. Dinners, and picnics, and birthdays and games of cricket, and work, and gardening, and lots and lots of tea. Something cold and wet nosed itself up Ursula's skirt. She hoped very much that it was the nose of one of the dogs and not one of the evacuees. This knowledge of the ATS girl's background seemed to particularly infuriate Edwina, who was gripping the butter knife in her hand as if she were planning to attack someone with it--Maurice or the ATS girl, or anyone within stabbing distance by the look of it. Ursula wondered how much harm a butter knife could do. Enough she supposed. There is whimsy and humor laced throughout this novel and it makes for a beautiful contrast to the more serious components of tragedy and war. Life is a farce after all; if you can't find the humor in it you've been doing it wrong or have missed the point entirely. Atkinson has not missed the point. As readers, we are in capable hands. She has one helluva story to tell you, and trust me, you don't want to miss it. This review can also be found at Busty Book Bimbo. View all 25 comments. Apr 24, Melissa rated it really liked it Shelves: she-and-or-they-but-not-he , ah-deadly. Ursula Todd is born in with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. The doctor cuts the cord. Ursula grows to age five, when she almost drowns in the ocean on holiday. A man on the beach saves her. She falls out the window of her house that winter. Could a little event like World War II have anything to do with it? As a book about the life of Ursula Todd, this succeeds brilliantly. Unfortunately, once this book tries to figure out what it all means, it gets a little muddled. In she kills Hitler. In her brother is found alive after the war. I need a little distance first. View all 33 comments. Shelves: , historical- fiction. Wouldn't that be wonderful? And how sad it is to think that I might have passed this novel over and never known these characters and relationships. It often seems like I am the only person in the world who hasn't watched Downton Abbey definitely the only Brit who hasn't but the favourable comparisons I keep seeing between the show and this book make me want to drop everything and go watch it. I imagine it has similarities. All the drama of wartime England combined with a soft, often quiet story about family life and just So many people come and go in this novel, but each one is lovingly-crafted and leaves their own personal mark. I adore it when authors do this - and so few do - when they make sure every single character becomes a human being with a life and personality beyond pushing the plot in a certain direction. The story centres around Ursula Todd who is born one snowy night in and dies that night from strangling on her own umbilical cord. On that same night in , Ursula is born and lives. What follows is a strange life full of many deaths that were, at the same time, also avoided. Somehow, in the hands of this extremely talented writer, a concept as trite as second chances becomes original, beautiful and so so moving. I would not sell this as a fast-paced adventure; it's pacing is relatively slow and it takes a while for the reader to realise that this book has far more depth than they first imagined. It bobs along at a steady pace, full of dazzling wit, humour and charm. It has an unmistakable old-fashioned Englishness about it - all tea time and "goodness gracious" - which works very well with the time and setting. But still, it was far from boring. It is too charming and well-written to be boring, and I could hardly put it down once I became absorbed in the characters' stories which didn't take long at all. This novel seems to gather layers as it goes. One minute you're sipping tea and enjoying the relationship dynamics, and the next you suddenly look back and realise that this quiet little wartime story has become steeped in philosophical detail, without seeming pretentious or too try-hard. Such a wonderful read and highly recommended. View all 31 comments. Mar 08, Anne rated it really liked it Shelves: britain , , fiction , favorites. So much great writing and characterization. Such an interesting premise and structure. Wonderful use of humor and irony thank you, Teresa throughout. Remarkable depictions of The Blitz. I want to give this book 5 stars. But I can't. A bit of editing would have helped. It's very difficult to go back over the same territory over and over again and keep it interesting. Atkinson did this amazingly well, tho there were moments of, "oh not this again. No way. It just would not have happened. And Atkinson didn't make me believe that it happened. Yes, Eva Braun had friends, but how did Ursula and Eva meet and how would Ursula have been allowed to visit one of the most heavily guarded places during the war? These sections lost me; they felt lifeless. My suspension of disbelief became overtaxed. This section reminded me of Woody Allen in his movie Zelig, suddenly and surprisingly showing up in various historical moments. That worked. Perhaps because it was comical. This didn't work because we're actually supposed to believe it. Reading the book was like jumping out of an airplane and enjoying the ride most of it , trusting that the landing will be a good one. Well, the parachute opened, but very late. The landing was abrupt. I think I still feel concussed. I just closed the book and I'm wondering, "what just happened? Maybe the outcome would be better the second or third or fourth time around. View all 50 comments. Dec 06, Melissa rated it it was ok Shelves: , wwii. I'm embarrassed to say I didn't really understand this book. I'm a huge Kate Atkinson fan and I think she's one of the most creative writers I've ever read. And I loved the idea of this book: Ursula is born, dies, and is born again, living different -sometimes very different - versions of her life over and over again. One of my problems is that there didn't seem to be any "rules" like there usually are in books about time travel and other magical occurrences. Sometime Ursula seems to remember th I'm embarrassed to say I didn't really understand this book. Sometime Ursula seems to remember the past versions of her life, sometimes she seems not to. Sometimes things change drastically, sometimes not so much. I found that confusing and sometimes hard to follow. And the unfortunately at the end I lost track of which life she was in and totally didn't understand what happened! I'm going to have to go read some of the other reviews and see if they can shed any light on it for me! View all 38 comments. Jul 13, Fabian rated it really liked it. But no problem. It is optimistic in the face of oblivion. View all 8 comments. Mar 05, Steve rated it it was amazing. It was February of when baby Ursula died at birth, but she was granted a narrative do-over. Next time the doctor made it through the snowstorm to sever the umbilical cord that was strangling her. She also got another chance after tumbling from the roof trying to reach a doll her malignant older brother had thrown there. Similar life after death sequences played out after a seaside drowning, the Spanish flu, and various war-time atrocities. Some might call this a gimmick, but that seems too pejorative a term to me. A better analogy might be how we navigate our way through a maze, proceeding until we reach a dead end and backtracking to the point where we can follow a different path. With the maze, we know where the decision points are. Atkinson scored literary points for the artful abstractions of these foggy memories. Before I get too carried away with the device, which I suspect had to do with a huge inventory of ready-to-use death scenes Atkinson wanted to employ ;- , I should mention what I consider to be even better selling points: the story, the characters and the setting. As fans of her Jackson Brodie books will attest, Atkinson is a master of crime drama. She was not about to short-shrift us on plot. Her relationships with men got appreciably better in later iterations once she got past her teenage naivety and some very unwelcome advances. Many of the most poignant storylines derived from the hardship of the setting — England spanning the two world wars. Ursula herself was insightful, empathetic, philosophical and poetic. Friends and co-workers were given enough personality to be interesting, too. That was even true of the German ones. Speaking of Germans, there was one in particular that authors of do-overs consistently wish dead. It is a fascinating question, even if over-asked. What if he had been killed before he had influence? How many lives would have been spared? What would our culture be like had there been no Holocaust? Or, as Ursula wondered, what if the US had not spent its way out of the Depression during the war and become the dominant purveyor of goods and lifestyles. Cheeky lady, implying it would be better. But I have to ask: how fast would her food be now? And how much reality would her TV feature? I really liked this book. But this one felt right. In a time when life was too easily lost, in a place where the war seeped into too many homes, it seemed appropriate that a work of fiction would offer some therapeutic revamping. All the more so after Atkinson personalized it for us, putting a likable lady with multifold potential in the middle of it all. View all 74 comments. Feb 28, switterbug Betsey rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites , favorite-books-i-have-reviewed , booker-material. The snake devouring its tail is an ancient symbol of wholeness, infinity, renewal, and eternal return. It symbolizes the cyclic nature of the universe, creation out of destruction, life after death. Likewise, the famous Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung, advanced the concept of the Shadow self, the parts of your self that are hidden from society. The process of becoming whole, psychically, is to integrate the unconscious Shadow and conscious selves, through deep meditation, dreams, or long journey The snake devouring its tail is an ancient symbol of wholeness, infinity, renewal, and eternal return. The process of becoming whole, psychically, is to integrate the unconscious Shadow and conscious selves, through deep meditation, dreams, or long journeys that build awareness. If this seems too much of an academic introduction to the brilliantly epochal novel by Kate Atkinson, it is also a reference to the finely calibrated structure and themes of life Atkinson time travels her narrative back to Feb 11, , repeatedly, so that her protagonist, Ursula Todd, can return again and again to rebirth and renewal. Right from the beginning, Ursula dies quickly after birth. Then she returns. Dies rather quickly again. In subsequent lives, she may take longer to die. But through each of these lives, we learn a lot more about Ursula. And, so does Ursula learn more about herself. For example, after a tragedy in one life, Ursula tends to feel a sense of something, or a chill, when the tragedy is coming close in the next life, and can often do something to prevent its reocurrence, even though she is not quite sure why she is doing it. Atkinson did it with such holographic clarity that I wondered how it had not been done a thousand times before in literature. There is certainly a purpose to this structure, but it isn't mechanical or expeditious. You may be scratching your head, wondering as you read, but you will settle in before long. The novel is so dynamic, and initially winsome and subtly tongue-in-cheek , that you feel in the bosom of it, not at arm's length or outside the story. Is it a gimmick? No, it is the anchor. It doesn't seem segmented or choppy; rather, it all integrates, like Jung's concept. Ursula's darkness penetrates to a metaphysical undertaking, and the reader is side by side with her odyssey. The author captures Ursula's moments of life- to-death-to-life enchantingly, yet poignantly, and the cycles nourish the theme of the story. Those in-between moments of life and death pique reader understanding, too. Her frequent returns don't feel repetitive, because Atkinson brings acuity and new observations for the reader to ponder. The darkness enveloped her, a velvet friend. Snow was in the air, as fine as talcum, as icy as the east wind on a baby's skin The settings s of the novel preside like a primary character, one in which repeated experience manifests deeper understanding. Like Ursula, I am inclined to return, time and again, and let the pages encircle me into the "black bat of darkness" and the snow blazing white of day. It's like a View all 26 comments. I believe everyone would love a chance to go back and change things in their past. Correct mistakes in order to change their life or their loved ones lives for the better. But changing one thing may only lead to a new problem……then you have to go back, change the first mistake, then the second one, and so on. She is born on a snowy night in February , but since she is born with no doctor present, and with the umbilical cord around her neck she never breaths a breath. Ursula is born on a snowy night in February ; the doctor makes it in time to save the little girl from nearly straggling on her own umbilical cord. Through it all, Ursula lives many lives and dies many deaths. Each time she is reborn in the same life, same date, same circumstances but each time she has a certain amount of recall from former times around and she is able to make choices to avoid catastrophe…. This book is just beautiful. Painstakingly researched and sublimely written, Life After Life has found a place on my Favorites shelf. What it was like to live with the threat of being bombed every single night, horrifying. Or what it was like to live under the rule of a crazy man, loving him and worshiping him as the savior of your country only to realize, too late, who he really was. I love this book and this quote that I hate to admit hits a little too close to home. Oct 13, Michael Jensen rated it did not like it. View all 20 comments. I didn't know it then, but some of my schoolwork from my younger days were palimpsests, manuscripts on which the original writing has been erased to make room for later writing, but where traces of the original writing remain. Ursula Todd compares her life lives to a palimpsest: she has an apparently infinite number of do-overs of her life. It's kind of like Groundhog Day , except that she starts over at birth each time, and each life ends with her death. She has frequent deja vu exp 2. She has frequent deja vu experiences and some vague memories and forebodings about events from her prior lives, but like the palimpsest, they've mostly been erased and only hazy traces remain. Ursula also has a lot of very rough lives. I suspect that having her die early and often made the story easier to write. Part of it is that she lived through both world wars in Great Britain, so the post-WWI Spanish flu epidemic and the London Blitz account for a fair number of her deaths, but really she does seem to have an undue amount of extremely bad luck. For a while I amused myself by keeping track of the number of deaths, but eventually I lost count. At any rate, she dies Because of her vague recollections, she's able to avoid some of the worse events from some of her lives in future lives, but sometimes her lives go into frustrating loops. It takes her about 5 tries to figure out how to avoid dying at age 8 from that influenza epidemic. Part of my frustration with Life After Life was its repetitive nature. Ursula's birth scene death 1 gets repeated more times than I can count, until I was ready to throw the book against the wall every time I saw the words "11 February " appear in the chapter header. Another problem is that I never really took to any of the characters in the book. Ursula herself is a bit of a sad sack, although she does show a lot of grit and has an admirable determination to avoid the sinkholes from her prior lives. She has an affair with at least one married man in one of her lives or maybe the same guy in several lives--I was kind of losing track at this point and marries some truly awful guys in other lives. Some of the people in her family are wonderful, but her mother is kind of distant and bitchy and her older brother is a first-class jerk. The storyline is kind of the same deal: some--very few--enjoyable periods in her life, but those are small islands in an ocean of grimness and outright misery. The London Blitz seemed to last forever. I'm sure that was realistic, and it was well-written, but it was depressing and rather tedious reading material. Like, say, this, when Ursula is a warden helping to rescue people from bombed buildings: As she crept gingerly forward, Ursula's knee pressed on something soft and supple and she recoiled, banging her head on a broken rafter, sending a shower of dust down. She had once stood on a body, recognized the squashy, meat-like quality of it. She supposed she had to look, although God knows she didn't want to. She peeled back a layer of wool and then another one as if unwrapping a badly packed parcel or a large, unwieldy cabbage. Eventually a small almost unblemished hand, a small star, revealed itself from the compacted mass. She thought she might have found Emil. Better then that his mother was dead rather than knowing about this, she thought. Emslie," she said over her shoulder, "there's a baby, try to avoid it. Spoilerish discussion time: view spoiler [ It's fairly clear from the start that Ursula is going to get the idea of assassinating Hitler, and that's where the story leads you. She's killed immediately after shooting Hitler, but then, understandably, there's a new life, what appears to be one of the better ones she's had, since her brother Teddy and the love of his life both survived. And on the very last page, there's her birth date again, but instead of reading about Ursula being born again we only read about the midwife who wasn't able to make it to her birth. Some readers think that means that Ursula was done being reborn and that the good life is also her last life, which sounds really nice. But I just don't see a logical reason for it being the last of her lives, other than perhaps this conversation between Ursula and her brother Teddy: "What if we had a chance to do it again and again," Teddy said, "until we finally did get it right. If so, I didn't see any other evidence for that in the story. In fact, a happy ending seems incongruous with the rest of this rather grim book. Overall, I thought Life After Life was well-written and well- researched, but too repetitive and bleak for my taste. A lot of people love this book, though, so give it a shot if it sounds appealing. Failed buddy read with Nenia and Figgy: One me who finished after a 2-month hiatus, one DNF, and one still on hiatus she says she's going to finish it sometime Content advisory: gruesome wartime scenes, domestic violence, frequent death scenes NSS , some adulterous and non-marital sex all non-explicit , and scattered F-bombs. View all 57 comments. Shelves: own-in-hardcover , reviewed , historical-fiction , releases , owned-books , read-in I struggled to find a word which would describe my reaction to Life After Life - Kate Atkinson's latest novel, released to considerable hype - and I came up with this. It's no perfect but then my reaction is not perfectly uniform as well; one can't accuse ms. Atkinson of being a hack and phoning her book in, not having an interesting enough idea or even of being a poor writer. She writes well, her concept is interesting and her writing flows easily and doesn't obstruct the storyline Bollocks! She writes well, her concept is interesting and her writing flows easily and doesn't obstruct the storyline which is not always a bad thing. So why am I unimpressed? Life After Life begins with an unusual situation. Ursula Todd, the protagonist, dies at the day of her birth in - an infant strangled with the umbilical cord during the delivery. In the very next scene Ursula's birth is shown to be happening again, but this time a doctor arrives to save the baby from asphyxiation. Ursula is born and lives, but soon dies again in different circumstances, only to be born and live once more, in yet another alternative version of the same event. And so it goes - rinse and repeat, life after life. The theme of reincarnation in fiction is neither new or unpopular - witness the success of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas , which was adapted into a blockbuster film last year. While I thought that Cloud Atlas was a bit gimmicky and didn't really breach any new grounds, it definitely had its advantages - such as David Mitchell's literary ventriloquism displayed by creation of several stories entirely different in tone and genre, but united by a common theme. Life After Life focuses on exploring different outcomes of certain situations - but this makes it feel repetitive and dull after a while: once Ursula dies for the umpteenth time we know for sure that a different version of the events leading to her death would kick. We realize that there isn't really a definite version of Ursula's story; it became increasingly difficult for me to care about any of them as I found myself being less and less interested. Life After Life contains several gripping and emotional scenes set during the London Blitz, two that stick in memory are of Ursula being trapped under the rubble and suffering from bitter cold and lack of resources. But even they lose their impact in the repetitiveness of the novel. As I read on, I found myself thinking that the reading experience resembles trying to jumpstart an old car which died in the middle of the road; we push and try to start the engine which spurts on for a moment, and we can ride in it for a few minutes, until it dies once more, forcing us to get out and start pushing once again. Even if the old car will carry us all the way to the destination, we find ourselves wishing we'd rather walked or took the bus instead. And os it was for me with Life After Life - after a while I had to push myself to read on, and even though it started up for a while it soon died again, forcing me to redouble my efforts. In the end, I felt that even thought I made it all the way to the end my undertaking was not appropriately rewarded. I'll certainly read more of Kate Atkinson's work, since she's a readable and entertaining writer - it's just this book that didn't do it for me. Any recommendations? Behind the Scenes at the Museum looks interesting, as do Case Histories. View all 61 comments. We can never get it right, but we must try. It's wrapped in a high-concept conceit of our protagonist Ursula's continual birth and rebirth into her not quite the same life, but said conceit is executed softly, subtly, played for laughs, used to display the horrors of war and the simple beauties of life. As such, it somewhat defies conventional subject categorization other than really well-done fiction. This book just clicked for me: the gorgeous prose, the unexpected and welcome humor, the depth of description of the Blitz and bucolic Fox Corner, the glorious the dazzling and dueling Sylvie and Izzy especially female characters of the Todd family and their solid yet less interesting male family members , the constant literary references and the way major questions about life's meaning and importance are handled quietly, thoughtfully, artfully. While not a perfect novel, I was completely swept away by Life After Life and this is something I'll re-read in the future. Overall, I found so much humanity in this read, and it was so well-written, I couldn't help but be moved and informed and entertained by it. This is a novel that also rifled through my fears of my and everyone's mortality, yet also left a pervading sense of optimism, or at least perseverance in the face of the inevitable. I'd rate it 4. And goodness, one can only hope I'll have the same feelings when it's my turn to quit the world and unlike Ursula, not return. View all 32 comments. Sep 10, Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it Shelves: historical , fantasy , science , british , time- travel , fiction , 21th-century. It is the first of two novels about the Todd family. The second, A God in Ruins, was published in The novel with unusual structure, repeatedly looping back in time to describe alternative possible lives for its central character, Ursula Todd, who is born on 11 February to an upper-middle- class family near Chalfont St Peter in Buckingham shire. In the first version, she is strangled by her umbilical cord and stillborn. In later iterations of her life she dies as a child - drowning in the sea, or when saved from that, by falling to her death from the roof when trying to retrieve a fallen doll. Then there are several sequences when she falls victim to the Spanish flu epidemic of - which repeats itself again and again, though she already has a foreknowledge of it, and only her fourth attempt to avert catching the flu succeeds. Then there is an unhappy life where she is traumatized by being raped, getting pregnant and undergoing an illegal abortion, and finally becoming trapped in a highly oppressive marriage, and being killed by her abusive husband when trying to escape. In later lives she averts all this by being preemptively aggressive to the would-be rapist. In between, she also uses her half-memory of earlier lives to avert the neighbor girl Nancy being raped and murdered by a child molester. The saved Nancy would have an important role in Ursula's later life s , forming a deep love relationship with Ursula's brother Teddy, and would become a main character in the sequel, A God in Ruins. Dec 27, Joe Valdez rated it it was ok Shelves: paranormal-general. Dear Kate Atkinson. You're a perceptively gifted writer and your novel Life After Life captivated me early. I saw exactly what you were doing, liked it and loved the way you set the table. I was turning the pages up to a point and the table dressing is beautiful. I can't recommend your nov Dear Kate Atkinson. I can't recommend your novel because it didn't come with a meal. Not only is there no story here, I don't know if there's any "there" there. But in an alternate timeline, the doctor arrives just in the nick of time, and the baby survives. She's named Ursula. The characters in her family and her home are by far the most appealing part of the book. Sylvie's society portraitist father died suddenly, cognac and a loose rug at the top of the stairs. His finances reveal massive gambling debts, but the beautiful Sylvie is rescued from "genteel and well-mannered poverty" at seventeen by Hugh Todd, a rising star in the banking world. Settling into an estate near Beaconsfield which Sylvie dubs "Fox Corner" due to its local wildlife, Sylvie names their children too: a pragmatic daughter Pamela, a pugnacious son Maurice and the average Ursula. Sylvie's classical education and propriety masks a coldness in her nature. Hugh is the family's rock, frequently bailing his flighty sister Izzie from one foolish affair or another. Christmas was a dull affair. Izzie came and talked a great deal about nothing or rather herself before announcing that she had joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment and was leaving for France as soon as the festivities were over. Glover's verdict. He had been adopted in Germany and Sylvie supposed he was a German citizen. How strange that he was only a little younger than Ursula but, officially, he was the enemy. Then at New year, one by one, all the children came down with chicken pox. Izzie was on the next train to London as soon as the first spot erupted on Pamela's face. So much for Florence Nightingale, Sylvie said irritably to Bridget. While Ursula survives the chicken pox, she succumbs to a powerful tide while on holiday in Cornwall and drowns. But in an alternate timeline, she's pulled from the surf by a recreational painter who happened to be nearby.

Life After Life (novel) - Wikipedia

Explore every inch of the post-apocalyptic world - be it in the city full of Infecteds, or an abandoned mine, or a broken-down college, or a freezing cold forest up in the highlands - to scavenge essential materials in order to survive. You'll need to know how to hunt and gather for food, how to tend to your wounds and make arms to protect yourself. You might encounter other survivors on your scavenging runs. You'll have to be extra careful, for they might attack you for loot. If they are amiable, you can choose to share with them your food, ammo and adventure stories. With the trusted friends you made along the way, you can find a place to camp and build, one brick at a time, until you have the final sanctuary for humanity. Together, around the campfire, humans may once again fend off the long, cold night with hugs. Reviews Review Policy. This is Radio transmitting across all AM frequencies, calling all survivors. Brand new outfit "Homerunner" is now available for purchase in the Mall. Improved the material tracking feature. Now it's possible to quickly track and calculate the amount of materials you need to craft an item. Affected by the hurricane, Santopany will experience sustained typhoons and rainfalls, with hurricane landfalls occurring every once in a while. View details. Flag as inappropriate. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. What if you could live again and again, until you got it right? On a cold and snowy night in , 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 die What if you could live again and again, until you got it right? 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? Get A Copy. Hardcover , pages. More Details Original Title. Todd Family 1. Ursula Todd. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Life After Life , please sign up. Lucy Your writing style and punctuation give an indication that the book may simply be too intelligent for you. What about the scene when Ursula is 13, I think, and visiting Izzie in London. Izzie is driving and busy turning the car around for some reason, and meanwhile Ursula sees her mother emerge from a hotel, wearing her mink coat, on the arm of a well-dressed man. I read the kindle version, so I haven't been able to go back yet and find that part. I don't think we ever get an explanation for that scene. Ksboydie Hi Anne, we were just discussing this at book club last week. I got this chill when I read one of the last chapters and the author seemed to suggest t …more Hi Anne, we were just discussing this at book club last week. I got this chill when I read one of the last chapters and the author seemed to suggest that Sylvie has the same ability as Ursula does to live her life over. Re-read the last description of Ursula's birth - Sylvie is prepared for the fact that Ursula will have the cord tied around her neck with her surgical scissors. The last line of that chapter is 'Practice makes perfect. Just a hypothosis because Atkinson doesn't explore this in any depth. See all 61 questions about Life After Life…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right? Ursula Todd is born in a snowstorm in England in but dies before she can take her first breath. During that same snowstorm she was born again and lives to tell the tale; again and again. This book is getting so many rave reviews, I feel like I am a black sheep just telling people it did not work. As I said before, there is nothing wrong with the writing; Kate Atkinson has created this lyrical narrative and I did find myself being swept away in the words. I even felt like at times I was reading this book without thinking about what was happening; a few times I had to stop and process before continuing. I did feel like Kate Atkinson did however overdo the twists and it turned out to be a roundabout way to retell the same story over and over again with different outcomes. Life after Life is the kind of book you should probably read in a real cold climate; the snowy, dark and sometimes bleakness of the novel seems to call for it. What is this, Miami Beach? I really wanted to enjoy this book; I will try another Kate Atkinson novel because I really think she has a great style. Just so happened Life after Life was not for me and I know people loved this book and will probably complain about this review but at least it was just an excuse to put some Groundhog Day quotes into something. View all comments. Karyn Zister I also found this challenging. I was happy to have read it on an e-reader so I could easily search and go back to remind myself of who people where or I also found this challenging. I was happy to have read it on an e-reader so I could easily search and go back to remind myself of who people where or the context at the time. Adoniyah Happy birthday to you cha Oct 20, AM. I wanted to like this book. I wish I could enjoy it. I bought it with such enthusiasm, and couldn't wait to start reading it. But alas, I sensed almost at the very start that it wasn't going to be a happy relationship - a point confirmed by mid- way through the book. The length, the repetitive scenes, the incredible number of times Ursula dies and is reborn, are all tedious and terrible torment to get through. Surely Atkinson could show I wanted to like this book. Surely Atkinson could show the courtesy of not subjecting her readers to so many repetitive scenarios. I cannot fault Atkinson's writing nor do I have any particular dislike for her characters I rather liked Izzy the best. But the plot lost my interest fairly early on and by the end, I positively wanted to hurl it at a wall I didn't. I'm rather fond of my walls. My apologies for offending anyone with this review. I understand our tastes are subjective and many simply adore this book. But I'm not one of them. View all 80 comments. Dec 19, karen rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites , real-people-fake-stories , death-is-not-the-end , from-publisher-or-author , distant-lands. On the way back from lunch, Sylvie said she wanted to visit Oberpollingers and buy a present for Hugh. When they reached the department store they found the windows daubed with anti-Jewish slogans and Sylvie said, "Gracious, what a mess. Not Sylvie, who had marched past the Brownshirts while Ursula reluctantly trailed in her wake into the store and up the thickly carpeted staircase. In the face of the uniforms, Ursula had shrugged a cartoon helplessness and murmured rather shamefacedly, "She's English. We only have one after all, we should try and do our best. We can never get it right , but we must try. View all 75 comments. When finally he did, he had to swerve like crazy, right into the oncoming traffic. What with his seatbelt not being properly secured and the 30 ton lorry, darkness fell rapidly. Stupid boy racer! He thought as he made a violent emergency stop. When he did finally get home he parked as usual round the corner, got out of his car and was delighted to be confronted with one of the urban foxes which visited Sherwood occasionally. Such elegant raffish creatures. But there seemed to be something agitating this particular one. It was moving side to side and then turning right round in some distress. What was wrong with it? Suddenly it lunged towards him, nipped him on the ankle and rushed away. He thought about the disturbing incident later that evening as he sat at his computer and began his review. But then he began to feel most peculiar. Darkness fell — again. Why not? Let him cause a fatal crash somewhere else. When he got home, as he opened the car door he was confronted with one of the urban foxes who visited Sherwood occasionally. But this one looked a little strange. Thinking it might possibly be rabid, he gave it a blare on the car horn and it ran off. This one seemed to be right above his house. What a racket. Suddenly, the noise stopped. Darkness fell quite quickly. The review. How about this. Apr 21, Emily Books with Emily Fox rated it really liked it. I love book about someone reliving their lives over and over and this one was no exception! Historical fiction this time and finally with a main female character. The first half was my favorite but if you usually enjoy WW2 historical fiction you'll enjoy the book for sure. It was a slow but captivating read, my only complain is the ending! View all 13 comments. Oh dear dear dear dear dear! Obviously I'm on another planet to all the other reviewers here, but try as I might, I simply had to give up on page The concept of constant re-births and lives was a good one but sadly, for me,the incidents throughout were so tame and tepid, and the characters that popped into Ursula's lives were so boring, I'm afraid the whole thing was like watching paint dry. Remember that feeling of rushing to get back to a book to read what happens next? T Oh dear dear dear dear dear! This was the exact opposite - dreaded picking it up, and trying to dredge up some interest in this conglomeration of non-entities! Now you're talking. View all 53 comments. Ursula Todd is born in the midst of a blizzard in , not once, but many times, during the course of her life - living only to die and be born again, repeatedly, traveling many paths until she lives the life she was meant to live. Kate Atkinson's writing is superb, and lyrical enough that it carried me through to the end of this book. The plot, however, left me floundering for weeks, trying desperately to claw my way to the end of this depressing tale. While the premise - reincarnation and dest Ursula Todd is born in the midst of a blizzard in , not once, but many times, during the course of her life - living only to die and be born again, repeatedly, traveling many paths until she lives the life she was meant to live. While the premise - reincarnation and destiny - is interesting, the execution left me frustrated. The early chapters of the book are very short, as Ursula is born, dies, and is reborn again with rapid succession. With each successive life, she lives longer in most cases and is developed more and more as a character. The choppy format of the early chapters make it difficult to get attached to Ursula, but as she lives longer, it becomes more and more apparent that she lives a sad, depressing life. In addition, as a result of her continued rebirth, it's difficult to become attached to her, or to feel any real regret or sadness at her passing. Also strange is that, as often as you meet them throughout Ursula's life, her siblings never really become fully realized characters. As they move in and out of her life, these siblings play important roles in the paths she follows, yet they remain rather one-dimensional, as though Atkinson couldn't be bothered to spend the time on them. The book was also a bit too meandering in its plot. Lives that led no where interesting or important wandered on for far too long, while lives that seemed to be leading somewhere ended abruptly, only to pick up again to follow another pointless path. Perhaps this was Atkinson's exploration of the capricious nature of fate, but it made for some rough reading. About pages of this novel could have been trimmed and it would only have improved the quality. Forty of those hundred pages should have been the last forty of the book - the last few "lives" lived by Ursula were confusing and unnecessary to the novel. All in all, the writing was exactly what you'd expect from Atkinson wonderful , but the story itself was confusing, lifeless, and somewhat empty. A hundred fewer pages, a different ending, and more fully fleshed-out secondary characters would have resulted in a 4 star book for me. I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for a review. View all 22 comments. Apr 02, Will Byrnes rated it it was amazing Shelves: fantasy , books-of-the-year , fiction. Kill off your heroine, early and often, while offering a look at the history of England from to the s. Gotta go. Now, where were we, a review? Yes, I seem to recall something about that. More of a feeling really. So, England, 20th century, perils of Pauline, well in this case Ursula, little bear, of Fox Corner, the manse of a well-to-do sort, not Downton rich, but, you know, comfortable. She has a prat of an older brother and a decent elder sis, with a couple of brothers arriving later. Kate Atkinson - from The Telegraph Life is full of decision points. Walk this way, survive, walk that way and splat. It begins early with Ursula, who is offed before her first breath the first time around. She gets a better deal on the next go, managing to remain with us into childhood, and so on. The structure seems to employ the backstitch a fair bit, starting Ursula up a few chronological paces before the deadly decision point. She seems to be born again more than an entire congregation of fundamentalist Christians, or, maybe more likely a band of Buddhists, as she seems to pick up a bit of wisdom, a bit of strength with each reincarnation. I counted 15 passings-on, but sure, I could have missed one or two. The lady must have G. Reaper on her autodial. What if I had done this instead of that? How might that have changed the outcomes? One can imagine the fun, and challenge an author experiences. Taking her main character, and plenty of secondary characters as well, in one direction then another, then another. It must mimic, to a degree, the authorial process. What if I do this to Ursula? What might happen? What if I point her in a different direction? And as for stuff happening, while it is usually pretty calm here, writing while on a bench in Prospect Park, I must admit I have never seen tentacles that size emerging from anywhere let alone the very modest Park Lake. The slurping sounds are getting rather loud. That sumbitch is faster than he looks…Gotta go. Of course the desktop has been a bit dodgy of late, but no big whup. I will dip into the special Kona stash, brew up a nice cuppa and set to, shoes off, no shirt. Maybe a nice bagel with butter and strawberry preserves. Review, yes, Atkinson, Ursula, do-overs. Oh yeah, it does call to mind a bit of Groundhog Day , although Phil the Weatherman knew early on that he was coming back each time. Not Ursula, although as time goes on she does develop a bit of a sixth sense about some things. And the other major difference here is that Life After Life takes on some heftier purpose than Phil getting the girl and becoming a better person. Ursula is faced with some immediate challenges, like evading a rapist, a girl-killer, those annoying Nazi bombs during the blitz, not falling out windows, you know, stuff. But she also must contend with moral choices, and larger scale. Not only figuring out what the right thing is to do and then deciding, for her life, but thinking about how events affect other people, the nation, maybe the world. What sort of life does she want to lead? How can she help the most people? What sort of person does she want to be? Can she make an impact beyond her immediate concerns? And within that context, others face similar choices. Ursula is not the only one with multiple exit scenes. There are plenty in the chorus of secondary characters who come and go, or should that be go and come back in varying iterations. What if so-and-so did A this time and B the next? How might that change things? This is part of the fun of the book. Excuse me a moment, Nala, sweetie, off the desk please. I will be happy to scratch you. No, do not rub up against my coffee cup. Too late, brown milky liquid splatters from the cup on the desk, rushing over the top of the desktop tower, which is sitting on the floor between desk and couch. I get up to fetch some paper towels. Maybe I should have worn slippers. I step away from the desk chair, contact enough wet to matter, and only feel it for moment when my body hair begins to ignite and my heart goes into highly charged spasms. I hear the beginning of a scream and then…. Seems a lovely morning for some reviewing. Rainy out? Well, not yet, but you can feel it coming. So, open a few windows. Sit at the desk. Maybe not. Might be a bit too much breeze there. Maybe the couch for a change. Yeah, book, they killed Kenny. You bastards! And I was, on, oh, page of the manuscript and still in the s. A Visit from the Goon Squad is one of the more dramatic of that sort. The rise of the novel comprised of linked stories has seen a boom in popularity. And so it is with Life After Life. While the notion of reincarnation is hardly new in fiction, how it is handled here is far beyond what we have seen before, a real risk-taking. And so effective. Ursula is a very engaging character. Each time she comes back, you want her to stick around. And even when she makes bad choices you will be rooting for her to fix those in the next round. Her sister Pamela seems as decent a sort as their brother Maurice seems insufferable, maybe a bit too insufferable. I found it to be entirely engaging, and was always sad when Ursula went dark yet again. The book opens with her taking aim at the worst baddie of the 20th century and you will keep hoping she finds her way back to that place and completes the mission. Will she? One of the most riveting and memorable elements in Life After Life is the description of London during the Blitz, on the ground, you-are- there, offering considerable nightmare material, and making it clear just how hardy the survivors must have been, and how fragile the hold on life, whichever iteration a person is in. The best part of the book, for me. There are many uses of animal references here. Ursula means little bear, The family name, Todd, means Fox. A group of Nazi wives is referred to as a wolf pack. Actual foxes move in and out of the story, residents of Fox Corner, the Todd family home. A German is named Fuchs which also means fox. There are more. A warden during the Blitz is named Woolf. At one point, Atkinson offers a wink and a nod to readers as her characters discuss time travel questions. There is much consideration here of the role and rights of women in the first half of the 20th century, and the changes in mores that marked the era. The difference between love and gratitude when considering marriage is considered. The effect of World War I on the nation is noted as well, the loss of a generation of men in the war, and the loss of vast numbers from both genders from the Spanish flu. While florid passages do not characterize the novel, there are some wonderful descriptions. Against the backdrop of black night the fires that had been started burned in a huge variety of colors—scarlet and gold and orange, indigo and a sickly lemon. Occasionally vivid greens and blues would shoot up where something chemical had caught fire. Savage and strangely magnificent. Yes it is. Now that the task is done, I think I will bring in a glass of juice and have some of these lovely hard sourdough pretzels. Maybe catch something from the DVR. Always loved these pretzels, except, of course, when bits get stuck going down. Sometimes large bits, uh oh, a very large bit…trying to self-Heimlich, but no go, hitting my head on the edge of the coffee table as I stumble and fall while trying to stand up. Maybe if I can get some liquid in there it will soften it, but the noggin-knock and the inability to get any air makes decision-making a tough go. The link to the second part is at the bottom of this one. View all 58 comments. May 29, Jason rated it it was ok Shelves: for-kindle , wine-club , , reviewed. Ursula Todd is an English-born nobody. This is not a spoiler, by the way. The assassination occurs on page one. The hundreds of lives it takes for her to get to that point occur on pages two through five hundred twenty-nine. But truthfully, most of the time the modification occurs on its own without her having to do anything at all. And that is what is most bothersome to me, I think besides her dull personality. It is exhausting to read about a woman dying over and over again only to be reborn right back where she started, and all without seeming to have any input into anything whatsoever. She just goes along with the program, a plastic bag beaten about by the wind. Is she a mother this time around? A spinster? And then you start to realize that who cares. In fact the only time she ever starts to make real decisions is toward the end of the novel after she has lived a ludicrous number of lives, and are we supposed to be at this point rooting for her? Good grief. Also, the character interactions, which is something I usually enjoy in novels, is pretty nonexistent here. Reading this book ultimately became tiresome to me, which is not really how you want your reading experience to go. View all 41 comments. I'm pretty sure the idea of being forced to live my life over and over again is something plucked from my worst nightmares, but who among us hasn't been at least tempted to dream of it occasionally with a wistful sigh. Please, please, please, just one more chance to live the best moments again and when necessary, to make different choices? But I would imagine if any of us were actually tasked to unravel all the "right" and "wrong" choices from our life and to relive the bad with the good, we'd g I'm pretty sure the idea of being forced to live my life over and over again is something plucked from my worst nightmares, but who among us hasn't been at least tempted to dream of it occasionally with a wistful sigh. But I would imagine if any of us were actually tasked to unravel all the "right" and "wrong" choices from our life and to relive the bad with the good, we'd go screaming into the night like raving banshees. For what is a perfect life? How many kicks at the can would it take for you to answer that question, if it is indeed answerable at all? Change one thing, change everything, change nothing, change all the good, change all the bad. Round and round and round. It's exhausting just thinking about it. What's the saying? If I only knew then, what I know now What would you do different? And would different choices always translate into better choices? Ursula is a normal British girl except she's pretty certain she's lived her life before, maybe many, many times. The older she gets, the stronger these feelings of deju vu become, hounding her like ghosts in the night. Her prescience is rarely crystal clear, more like moods or instinct. Do this. Don't do that. Run away. Run toward. Stay still. Life After Life starts slow and unassuming. The story is teasing, the pacing a dawdling, scenic walk through the English countryside. But from the very first page I was enthralled and little did I realize what a powerful spell Atkinson was casting on my reader brain. Because as you continue to read, the book picks up gravity and speed and texture. Each life after life reinforces the tender bonds you have been working on with each of the characters. Your acquaintance with them is not one brief life, but many, many lives. Like Ursula we are both cursed and blessed with the long view, the big picture. We come to know all the various permutations of death, cruelty, love and loss. We bear witness through two World Wars and how some forces, no matter how forewarned, are unstoppable, greater even than the hand of time. This is a very English story, and is steeped in pre historical detail. Not ever having watched an episode of Downton Abbey I'll go out on a limb here and suggest fans of that show will love this novel for its acute sense of time and attention to detail. Atkinson is ruthless in her pursuit for authenticity. This is wartime England, no time to pussyfoot around. This has got to be right , and in her quest I believe she succeeds magnificently. The details are small but glorious, and paint such an intimate portrait you will feel absorbed into Ursula's quiet family life where there are disagreements and births, and jealousies and forgiveness. Yes, there is the rumble of the earth as the German bombs fall during the Blitz, but such terrible moments co-exist with the stark ordinariness of a life lived. Dinners, and picnics, and birthdays and games of cricket, and work, and gardening, and lots and lots of tea. Something cold and wet nosed itself up Ursula's skirt. She hoped very much that it was the nose of one of the dogs and not one of the evacuees. This knowledge of the ATS girl's background seemed to particularly infuriate Edwina, who was gripping the butter knife in her hand as if she were planning to attack someone with it--Maurice or the ATS girl, or anyone within stabbing distance by the look of it. Ursula wondered how much harm a butter knife could do. Enough she supposed. There is whimsy and humor laced throughout this novel and it makes for a beautiful contrast to the more serious components of tragedy and war. Life is a farce after all; if you can't find the humor in it you've been doing it wrong or have missed the point entirely. Atkinson has not missed the point. As readers, we are in capable hands. She has one helluva story to tell you, and trust me, you don't want to miss it. This review can also be found at Busty Book Bimbo. View all 25 comments. Apr 24, Melissa rated it really liked it Shelves: she-and-or-they- but-not-he , ah-deadly. Ursula Todd is born in with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. The doctor cuts the cord. Ursula grows to age five, when she almost drowns in the ocean on holiday. A man on the beach saves her. She falls out the window of her house that winter. Could a little event like World War II have anything to do with it? As a book about the life of Ursula Todd, this succeeds brilliantly. Unfortunately, once this book tries to figure out what it all means, it gets a little muddled. In she kills Hitler. In her brother is found alive after the war. I need a little distance first. View all 33 comments. Shelves: , historical-fiction. Wouldn't that be wonderful? And how sad it is to think that I might have passed this novel over and never known these characters and relationships. It often seems like I am the only person in the world who hasn't watched Downton Abbey definitely the only Brit who hasn't but the favourable comparisons I keep seeing between the show and this book make me want to drop everything and go watch it. I imagine it has similarities. All the drama of wartime England combined with a soft, often quiet story about family life and just So many people come and go in this novel, but each one is lovingly-crafted and leaves their own personal mark. I adore it when authors do this - and so few do - when they make sure every single character becomes a human being with a life and personality beyond pushing the plot in a certain direction. The story centres around Ursula Todd who is born one snowy night in and dies that night from strangling on her own umbilical cord. On that same night in , Ursula is born and lives. What follows is a strange life full of many deaths that were, at the same time, also avoided. Somehow, in the hands of this extremely talented writer, a concept as trite as second chances becomes original, beautiful and so so moving. I would not sell this as a fast-paced adventure; it's pacing is relatively slow and it takes a while for the reader to realise that this book has far more depth than they first imagined. It bobs along at a steady pace, full of dazzling wit, humour and charm. It has an unmistakable old-fashioned Englishness about it - all tea time and "goodness gracious" - which works very well with the time and setting. But still, it was far from boring. It is too charming and well-written to be boring, and I could hardly put it down once I became absorbed in the characters' stories which didn't take long at all. This novel seems to gather layers as it goes. One minute you're sipping tea and enjoying the relationship dynamics, and the next you suddenly look back and realise that this quiet little wartime story has become steeped in philosophical detail, without seeming pretentious or too try-hard. Such a wonderful read and highly recommended. View all 31 comments. Mar 08, Anne rated it really liked it Shelves: britain , , fiction , favorites. So much great writing and characterization. Such an interesting premise and structure. Wonderful use of humor and irony thank you, Teresa throughout. Remarkable depictions of The Blitz. I want to give this book 5 stars. But I can't. A bit of editing would have helped. It's very difficult to go back over the same territory over and over again and keep it interesting. Atkinson did this amazingly well, tho there were moments of, "oh not this again. No way. It just would not have happened. And Atkinson didn't make me believe that it happened. Yes, Eva Braun had friends, but how did Ursula and Eva meet and how would Ursula have been allowed to visit one of the most heavily guarded places during the war? These sections lost me; they felt lifeless. My suspension of disbelief became overtaxed. This section reminded me of Woody Allen in his movie Zelig, suddenly and surprisingly showing up in various historical moments. That worked. Perhaps because it was comical. This didn't work because we're actually supposed to believe it. Reading the book was like jumping out of an airplane and enjoying the ride most of it , trusting that the landing will be a good one. Well, the parachute opened, but very late. The landing was abrupt. I think I still feel concussed. I just closed the book and I'm wondering, "what just happened? Maybe the outcome would be better the second or third or fourth time around. View all 50 comments. Dec 06, Melissa rated it it was ok Shelves: , wwii. I'm embarrassed to say I didn't really understand this book. I'm a huge Kate Atkinson fan and I think she's one of the most creative writers I've ever read. And I loved the idea of this book: Ursula is born, dies, and is born again, living different -sometimes very different - versions of her life over and over again. One of my problems is that there didn't seem to be any "rules" like there usually are in books about time travel and other magical occurrences. Sometime Ursula seems to remember th I'm embarrassed to say I didn't really understand this book. Sometime Ursula seems to remember the past versions of her life, sometimes she seems not to. Sometimes things change drastically, sometimes not so much. I found that confusing and sometimes hard to follow. And the unfortunately at the end I lost track of which life she was in and totally didn't understand what happened! I'm going to have to go read some of the other reviews and see if they can shed any light on it for me! View all 38 comments. Jul 13, Fabian rated it really liked it. But no problem. It is optimistic in the face of oblivion. View all 8 comments. Mar 05, Steve rated it it was amazing. It was February of when baby Ursula died at birth, but she was granted a narrative do-over. Next time the doctor made it through the snowstorm to sever the umbilical cord that was strangling her. She also got another chance after tumbling from the roof trying to reach a doll her malignant older brother had thrown there. Similar life after death sequences played out after a seaside drowning, the Spanish flu, and various war-time atrocities. Some might call this a gimmick, but that seems too pejorative a term to me. A better analogy might be how we navigate our way through a maze, proceeding until we reach a dead end and backtracking to the point where we can follow a different path. With the maze, we know where the decision points are. Atkinson scored literary points for the artful abstractions of these foggy memories. Before I get too carried away with the device, which I suspect had to do with a huge inventory of ready-to-use death scenes Atkinson wanted to employ ;- , I should mention what I consider to be even better selling points: the story, the characters and the setting. As fans of her Jackson Brodie books will attest, Atkinson is a master of crime drama. She was not about to short-shrift us on plot. Her relationships with men got appreciably better in later iterations once she got past her teenage naivety and some very unwelcome advances. Many of the most poignant storylines derived from the hardship of the setting — England spanning the two world wars. Ursula herself was insightful, empathetic, philosophical and poetic. Friends and co-workers were given enough personality to be interesting, too. That was even true of the German ones. Speaking of Germans, there was one in particular that authors of do-overs consistently wish dead. It is a fascinating question, even if over-asked. What if he had been killed before he had influence? How many lives would have been spared? What would our culture be like had there been no Holocaust? Or, as Ursula wondered, what if the US had not spent its way out of the Depression during the war and become the dominant purveyor of goods and lifestyles. Cheeky lady, implying it would be better. But I have to ask: how fast would her food be now? And how much reality would her TV feature? I really liked this book. But this one felt right. In a time when life was too easily lost, in a place where the war seeped into too many homes, it seemed appropriate that a work of fiction would offer some therapeutic revamping. All the more so after Atkinson personalized it for us, putting a likable lady with multifold potential in the middle of it all. View all 74 comments. Feb 28, switterbug Betsey rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites , favorite-books-i-have-reviewed , booker-material. The snake devouring its tail is an ancient symbol of wholeness, infinity, renewal, and eternal return.

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