by Kate Atkinson, 2013 (same author who wrote Started Early, Took My Dog)
Never read a book like this before – like different courses through time that a person’s choices make.
Little Ursula is born on a snowy night in English countryside home, “Fox Corner,” on February 11, 1910. First time she dies because the doctor couldn’t make it in time to save her due to snow. The chord was wrapped around her neck. Begin again. This time she lives – he makes it just in time. The whole book is like that – Ursula lives through tragedies, then lives through them again but this time prevents the tragedy. We go through WWII about 5 times (all bad – once she is married to a German and has a little girl. They get trapped in Germany and Russia is on its way – they commit suicide.) But twice in the book, there is a chapter set in about 1930 where Ursula shoots Hitler (before he becomes the leader that causes so much pain and heartache).
Once she is raped at the age of 16 by her brother’s friend – she gets pregnant. Izzie, her aunt, takes her to have an illegal abortion, and she continues on after almost dying, to marry an abusive man, who ends up beating her to death. Begin again – she avoids the rape and her life takes a completely different and much better course, although marred by WWII.
Good book but very different than anything I’ve ever read. Read it in Alaska, Cooper Landing.
Here’s the little book review from the Parade Magazine: “Life After Life. In this fascinating novel, Kate Atkinson takes her English heroine, Ursula, through both world wars in a series of stop-and-start lives and “what if?” scenarios. It’s a tour de force that ponders memory and deja vu–and puts history on a very human scale.”
Here’s the book review from my 2016 Book of the Day Calendar: “This incredibly original novel features a woman named Ursula Todd who, throughout the course of her life, dies and is reborn over and over again, from 1910 through World War II. The daughter of a British banker and his wife, Ursula suffers a variety of demises, from crib death to drowning to being beaten to death by a brutal husband; but every time she is reincarnated, she returns as herself. The book explores the many turns that any individual life could take, given a slightly altered circumstance or two. It’s a thought-provoking story that makes a wonderful book club choice.”