Life After Life

A Novel

By: Kate Atkinson

Narrated by: Fenella Woolgar

Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins

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)

A few lives too many...

UGH! I'm so confused. It's good, not great. It's boring and fascinating. It's clever but kind of cheats to be smart. You should take your time, but hurry along.

This well written, but overly long book has such a clever premise that the actuality of it is a bit of a disappointment. And even with that criticism, the heart of this book is smart and well written, but just requires a lot of patience. I did have more than a few times when I felt like this was a cheat being able to start over just as your character is painted into the proverbial corner, but then she does a wonderful job transmitting the agony of war and loss you're so curious about how our hero's life will be different. This is definitely a long car ride, meandering vacation, listen, but then again, if you put it down for too long you forget where you are when life replays itself.

This is a TRULY BRITISH book. If you're an Anglophile (or entranced with British history shows), you may have more patience with this one than I had.

Can We Change The Past????

In this unusual novel, the main character, Ursula, dies and is re-born dozens of times. Upon each re-birth she enters the same life again and again. And, each time, through pure instinct and déjà vu, she tries to fix previous mistakes that led to her death and to the death of friends and family.

The premise of Life After Life, led me to think about our opportunities for remedying mistakes in the life we are currently living. Surely, we can’t go back in time and prevent things from occurring, but, on the other hand, might we somehow shift our memories and the memories of others?

Great writing and a really unique premise. I would have given it 5 stars overall, but I thought the author concentrated on repeating Ursula's lives during WWII way too much.

Enthralling though sometimes disconcerting

A captivating novel though the time shifts did prove frustrating at times. Loved the rich details and literary references

Mixed Feelings

This review is for the Audible version. I gave this book “5 stars” because I enjoyed it (I think.)

I say I think because it took me a few chapters to catch on to what the heck was happening. I felt as if I was trapped in a Twilight Zone episode for a minute. Once I got the jest of what was happening I was able to concentrate more on the story – and a lot of story(s) it was.

I thought that the narrator, Fenella Woolgar, did an excellent job. She made each character come alive, and there was a distinct difference in their voices. It was a very unique approach to storytelling, and I think the book will find its way into the classroom because of this uniqueness.

However… there were times when I thought to myself… Lord is this every going to end! I did manage to make it to the end, and as I reflect back I enjoyed it as a whole. At the end of the book I knew all of the characters very well, and I have read many books where that was not the case.

If you appreciate “a different” approach to literature you will enjoy this. But be prepared to think as well as be entertained.

The roads not taken . . .

The road not taken. Stepping into the river twice. Groundhog Day. Variations on the theme of getting to do it over, and will it make things better or even different. Ursula gets multiple do-overs from infancy, many times with no control over how the next go-round will be played. Is Fate in control or is Ursula, and does it even matter? Fascinating premise, and generally well done, although I got the sense of Ursula being a somewhat detached observer of her own life rather than a full participant. While some of her actions led her to obvious misery, when sent back to the same situation, choosing a different action may have avoided the misery, but never seemed to result in happiness either. What seemed lacking to me was some inkling of passion or depth of feeling on Ursula’s part. I wanted to feel that if Fate had singled her out for multiple do-overs, that it was for some cosmically important reason. What would stir her soul, rally her to action, justify her existence? Is that too much to hope for or is life just life?

This review is sounding more negative than I really mean for it to, because overall I really did enjoy the book. Made me think of all of the crossroads I have faced in my life and how the choices I’ve made, for better or worse, have made me who I am now, and how might I have been different in other circumstances. A wonderful view of middle class English life between and during the Wars, with differing perspectives because of the various lives lived by Ursula. The writing is excellent. The supporting cast was very much brought to life for me – I was especially fond of Pamela, Teddy and Izzy. The reading by Fenella Woolgar was superb – when she voiced Hugh calling Ursula “Little Bear”, I felt the warmth of his fatherly affection. A solid 4-star, very nearly a 5.

Compelling

Excellent narration, story intriguing,urging one to read on.Captures the horror of war for the ordinary people living in London.

Life After Life

This book has been sitting in my library for a while. If I had the chance to do it all again I would have listened to it sooner. It's a beautiful story, well written and narrated wonderfully. It will grab ahold of you and not let go.

Leaves a hole in your heart

This is one of those books that presents itself as people in such a way that when it's over, one feels lonely and it takes a micro second every now and then to remember that the loneliness is for an imaginary person, not someone once touched and talked with. Maybe that is in part because some real people left me at the time I read this book but it is alsom and muchm due to the skillful writing.

Not a linear story but fascinating

Some reviews expressed confusion and dismay over the nonlinear story told here, but the web of events, the circularity of time, is the point. If you accept that, the story flows beautifully through the main character, Ursula. A masterpiece of detail in writing, this one was a gift. Highly recommend.

Too long

The writing was good, but....I found this to be repetitive and way too long. By the last few times Ursula was reborn, I was like “not again.” There were parts that were interesting and some where my mind wandered.