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Life After Life  By  cover art

Life After Life

By: Kate Atkinson
Narrated by: Fenella Woolgar
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Publisher's summary

What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?

On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.

Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can - will she? Darkly comic, startlingly poignant, and utterly original: this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best.

©2011 Kate Atkinson (P)2013 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"A densely layered, century-sprawling work that is a formidable bid for the brass ring of the U.K.'s prestigious Man Booker Prize. Life After Life is a drama of failures and providential rebirths...High-concept premise...A deft and convincing portrayal of an English family's evolution across two world wars...Marvelous...Not only does she bring characters to life with enviable ease, she has an almost offhand knack for vivid scene-setting ...Her storytelling prowess is on fullest display in a gorgeous and nerve-racking novella-length chapter set during the Blitz...It's spellbindingly done." (Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal)

"Life After Life is a masterpiece about how even the smallest choices can sometimes change the course of history. It's wise, bittersweet, funny, and unlike anything else you've ever read. Kate Atkinson is one of my all-time favorite novelists, and I believe this is her best book yet." (J. Courtney Sullivan, best-selling author of Maine and Commencement)

"Life After Life is dark and funny and suspenseful and sad all at the same time." (Emily Ecton, NPR, Great Reads of 2013)

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What listeners say about Life After Life

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Better read than heard

I suspect that reading this story would have made the jumping around in time a little easier to follow. The premise was very interesting, and though the actor's voice was easy to listen to, I kept getting lost in which part of the story we were in.

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nope

I started it and tried to like it. I gave it 13 chapters and couldn't take it anymore. frustratingly laborious.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

love it!

this book has captivated my attentions several times! I truly enjoy listening and reading this book, I do wish it would go on!

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On my top ten list

Yup, have been a member of Audible for many years. Been reading books for 60 years. This beautiful, amazing book is one of my all-time favorites. It is nothing short of wondrous. The narrator is perfect. If this book doesn't touch your heart and bring tears to your eyes, you are probably a callow youth.

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    5 out of 5 stars

Life after lie

Crikey I wish that Ursula jolly well had killed Hitler!
I was, at first, a little irritated by the back and forth and before and after, and endless snow stuff.
And then, suddenly, I didn't mind. Ms Atkinson is a brilliant and engaging writer. I love her range.
She makes her characters so convincing.... I swore not to read another darn first/second world war thing, but she got me. I actually cried during all the ghastly recovery work that Ursula did during the second world war.
It annoyed me that Teddy survived, but oh my gosh, I'm reading the sequel which is all a about him.
She got me again.

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  • 12-06-15

makes you think

very interesting story about how life can be, or can not be, changed in a single moment of action or inaction

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In my Top Ten

I will (have) listened to this book again & again. It is a lovely story; the characters are beautifully drawn and portrayed; but most of all: the story manages to capture Universal Truths of Life. That’s a phenomenally difficult task for an author, but Kate Atkinson manages it here. After this, I went on to read all her other books (also great.) It’s not really a “light read” - it has substance & meaning - but it’s also entertaining, so I would (and do) recommend this book to everyone.

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unique, thought provoking

I loved it but it took 2 tries. Stay the course and you'll get hooked. Beautiful writing and truly unique plot combined with a lovely narrator makes for a thoroughly engaging experience!

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

All in all I enjoyed this book.

I did have to go back a number of times to figure out what was happening, because sometimes there weren't any obvious breaks where the time periods changed. And the whole 'what if you went back in time and killed Hitler' is so old. But that is a minuscule part of the story.

I didn't find the book as confusing as some of the other reviewers. And I think I will enjoy it more on a second listen. That I will listen a second time is to its credit.

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    4 out of 5 stars

Well written but confusing story

I found the many stories to be confusing as I tried to keep them straight in my head. I’m not sure that I understood the ending. The author must have kept multiple timelines while writing this book.

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