Life After Life

By: Kate Atkinson

Narrated by: Fenella Woolgar

Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right?

During a snowstorm in England in 1910, a baby is born and dies before she can take her first breath. During a snowstorm in England in 1910, the same baby is born and lives to tell the tale.

What if there were second chances? And third chances? In fact an infinite number of chances to live your life? Would you eventually be able to save the world from its own inevitable destiny? And would you even want to?

Life After Life follows Ursula Todd as she lives through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. With wit and compassion, she finds warmth even in life’s bleakest moments, and shows an extraordinary ability to evoke the past. Here is Kate Atkinson at her most profound and inventive, in a novel that celebrates the best and worst of ourselves.

©2013 Kate Atkinson (P)2013 Random House Audiobooks

A mind altering book

What made the experience of listening to Life After Life the most enjoyable?

The trick to this book is to stay with it. It is 1910 and snow is falling and life starts. And starts again.Kate Atkinson is simply one of the finest writers today. This book is a literary wonder - earthed by beautiful characters and a solid English country home - and yet delving into the questions of life and time and choice. World War Two vividly evoked. Ethereal and captivating. Don't miss it.

a bit jumpy but well worth persevering

Would you listen to Life After Life again? Why?

Yes. A really interesting story line with great characters. Sort of like a choose your own adventure where you can go back and find a better ending, except the author is choosing the new story lines her self, time and time again.

What other book might you compare Life After Life to and why?

The book thief or The time traveller's wife for its unconventional story line

Any additional comments?

I read comments about how jumpy the story line was and that put me off a little bit. But you soon get used to it and I actually started looking forward to the story line jumping back in time again. A great novel that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Less profound than it claims

Struggled to finish it and was very annoyed by the end. I missed the wit and the comedy that interlaced so well through profound themes in Atkinson's other books.
Narrator had bad German pronunciation, but that will probably only irritate German speakers.

Intriguing and fascinating

I think this is my absolute favourite Kate Atkinson. What are the pivotal episodes in our lives that alter everything to come? Who can determine the purpose in their own life? An absolute thought provoking narrative.
Excellently performed by Fenella Woolgar

"Become what you are" meets "Needs must"

Based on the plot summary, I'd have passed over "Life After Life". The idea of being endlessly reborn into the same life sounds too much like the tedium of "Groundhog Day". I've also been avoiding all those World-War-II-Is-Seventy books that want to turn this horrible period of Europe's history into a source of romantic nostalgia.

I bought "Life After Life" because Kate Atkinson wrote it and I've always enjoyed her books.

Even so, I was surprised at just how well written this book is. From the assassination attempt on the first page, the book grabbed my attention and didn't let go. I ended up stealing time so that I could listen to the fourteen hour audiobook over three days. Even then, I wanted it to go on longer.

"Life After Life" follows the many lives of Ursula Todd. They are all the same life, starting on the same day, in the same place, with the same family. The consequences of small differences in circumstances, in decisions made, in meeting kept or missed, ripple through these lives to change them in surprising, and sometimes tragic, ways. Some lives are distressingly short. Some are just distressing. One or two work out reasonably well for Ursula. In all these lives Ursula is Ursula. She has the same abilities and desires but she follows a different path and has to cope with different consequences.

As the lives went on, I became more and more attached to Ursula, wanting the best for her, hoping that her mysterious déja vu would help her avoid the pitfalls of her earlier lives. Slowly, it started to dawn on me that I was missing the point. Each of Ursula's lives is real. None of them is a rehearsal. Her life is not a video game where each replay allows her to get to learn something that will take her to a higher level, her life is an opportunity for her to embrace who she is and do the best she can with what she has. It seemed to me that Kate Atkinson has started with Nietzsche's imperative, "Become who you are" and added a very English middle-class code: "Needs must". Becoming who you are does not free you from the responsibility to do the best you can in the circumstances.

"Life After Life" is much more than a vehicle for a philosophical discussion. The people in it are real. As Ursula's lives pass you learn to care about her family, her friends and the people she works with so that it matters when bad things happen. I found myself in tears many times while reading this book. Kate Atkinson pulls no punches on the bad things that happen and bad things, often the same bad things, happen again and again. The main message seems to be: "Bad things will happen. What choice do you have other than to deal with them?" Or at least, that is the response that consistently makes Ursula, Ursula. Some of the people around constantly seek to avoid the consequences of bad things happening.

One of the main bad things that happens in World War II. There is no nostalgia for plucky Britain, standing alone against the Nazi menace, keeping calm and carrying on. Instead I got the most harrowing descriptions of the Blitz I have ever read. Kate Atkinson manages to convey the scale of the death and destruction, the relentlessness of the bombings, the defenselessness of the people and the personal cost of a "Needs must" approach. I also got to see the impact in Germany and to experience the fear of being in Berlin, knowing that the Russian Army was raping and murdering its way towards you.

The language, both dialogue and description, perfectly evokes the time, place and social class. The depth to which the people and their relationships are imagined and re-imagined is astonishing. I felt as if I knew these people better than the ones I work with every day.

This is a wonderful book. Yet I recommend you do not read it. Listen to it instead. The audiobook is narrated by the actress, Fenella Woolgar. She is the perfect choice for this. Her performance is faultless. She carried me through this book, helping me to focus and to hear the voices of the time.

Hurry up and write a new book please Kate...

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, but I am biased...I love any book by Kate Atkinson.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Life After Life?

The bomb scene in the London townhouse when the baby is found...

What does Fenella Woolgar bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Audible books come to life with a brilliant narrator...

If you could take any character from Life After Life out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Silvie - as long as we could have dinner at Fox Corner as I would love to visit that house.

Any additional comments?

LIke I said, please write another book soon Kate Atkinson.

Can I give this book six stars?

Where does Life After Life rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Top 5.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Life After Life?

Every moment described in beautiful detail by Kate Atkinson becomes memorable. I am literally IN the rooms, the gardens, the wars and the hearts of the characters. The story is compelling, funny, poignant and mesmerising.

Which scene was your favorite?

The novel involves the retelling of stories multiple times so this is tricky to answer. The whole novel, with it's changing and retelling of scenes and the switching of time and place is just overall, fabulously, deliciously enchanting.

Any additional comments?

I cannot imagine this story without the voice of the superb narrator. I loved her portrayal of the various characters and accents, but she does a particularly wonderful job of creating believable voices for the children. The author is fabulous but the narrator is simply divine

Extraordinary

Fenella"s extraordinarily gifted talent for narration brought life after life to life again and again

I REALLY enjoyed this

What did you love best about Life After Life?

It's such a creative story! The characters were so easy to attach to and the reader has such talent for telling the story, not just reading.

What other book might you compare Life After Life to and why?

It's such a creative story. I can't compare it to anything because I've never read/listened to another story quite like it.

Have you listened to any of Fenella Woolgar’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I had not listened to Fenella before but her voice is so fantastic for audio books that I will definately be looking out for more of her books.

If you could take any character from Life After Life out to dinner, who would it be and why?

This is a hard one. I'm tossing up between Ursula and Izzy. Izzy would be highly entertaining, but Ursula would the character I would be most interested in chatting to.

Any additional comments?

Thank you to the author for such an entertaining story.

Stunning story and performance - Missing it!

What other book might you compare Life After Life to and why?

One Day, The Last Letter from Your Lover

Have you listened to any of Fenella Woolgar’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, she's new to me, but I'll be looking into her other performances.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I never wanted to reach my destination in the car and turn it off. I miss it since I finished listening.

Any additional comments?

I've recommended this to my friends. I just loved it.