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)

Exhilarating, breathtaking book

I could not put this fascinating book down. I was breathless when I came to the end of it. I quickly downloaded the companion novel, A God in Ruins, and was moved to tears by it as well.

I'm now going back to listen to this novel again, something I never do so soon after the first reading. There is so much technique and so much heart, I need to experience it again.

Not what I was expecting

This book is more of a life story rather than an adventure. We follow Ursala through her lives and see the way she tries to change things for the better ( with only intuitive feelings of her past lives). Each life gets a little longer and she retains more of her past memories with them towards the end.
I really enjoyed the story all though it is not action packed. My only problem with the story is that is was often confusing as it jumped from life to life, I had to pay very close attention or re-listen often to figure out what was going on. It may be less confusing in written form. I was also left wondering at some of the changes in her lives that she did not cause such as the adoption of a certain baby, did someone else in her family also repeat lives and change things or was it just a random happening. The ending of the book left me a little disappointed as I am not sure what was done to keep someone alive and also the very last sentences of the book were about a person who only had a few words mentioned about them prior and I never really understood their part in the story at all. It may be that I missed something that I would have understood if I read the book. I think the narrator gave a good performance. Over all I would rate my enjoyment of the book a 4 to 5 star but my satisfaction at a 3.

Did not want the lives to end

The story is kind of like an onion. Our heroine, basically, lives several lives at once. Surprisingly, the author manages to pull it off without much confusion or contrivance. Even more surprising, it works in audio form (credit goes to the narrator as well, who is quite good). I did not give it five stars only because, as another reviewer also mentions, there is one gratuitous event that turns what is a very believable bunch of lives into a fairy tale for a moment. The novel did not need that -- and it makes the book almost fail towards the end.

Still, I liked it. Particularly the fact that, even though the heroine is shaped by the events in her lives, she is -- at her core -- who she is in spite of that.

Have enjoyed all of Kate Atkinson's books. This one is no exception.

Not what I was expecting

The author is gifted in story telling, but whoever summarized the book failed. The book is about a Buddhist belief in that we are trapped in the samsara. However, it is a samsara over a single life time. If you like Hindu and Buddhist philosophy, then you will enjoy this book. If you are looking for The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, then look else where.

Slow, then compelling, then tedious

The use of rebirth was a great device to move the story along as well as to develop other characters in the book. At first, I was afraid the story was becoming tedious because of the continual retelling of the protagonist's life, always starting from birth. But then the pace picked up, the plot took off, and the story raced along. I was hooked and had a hard time putting it down. Unfortunately, just after the half-way point--and yet another rebirth--I returned to my feeling that the book was becoming tedious and I just kept hoping for the story to wrap up and finish. All in all, I guess I give it a B-/C+. I liked the book. Nicely written. Good narration. Too long.

Unexpectedly enthralling

In a beautifully narrated presentation, Atkinson's novel unfolds to us, layer upon layer, a story of great depth and character. A thriller, a saga, a deep well of richness in which to immerse yourself.

What just happened?

I don’t know if I missed something, but I really don’t understand what I listened to. I enjoyed it, but I don’t get what the point was. The narrator was great.

Boring

I was really disappointed in this book, it seems to go on forever I had to force myself to finish

Not my cup of tea.

Although an easy listen, the back-and-forth nature of the text wasn't my favorite. Felt like it could go on forever, then ended rather abruptly. Not high on my recommendations list.

Adequate.

The number of people who love this book in print suggests to me that the problem with it may be it doesn't translate well to audio. It became a chore. There were some charming moments in it, but as it progressed, the protagonist's tangled memories become hard to deal with, especially with the monotonous reading that doesn't help distinguish these times. I admit I snoozed through much of it.