The Ministry of Time

A Novel

De: Kaliane Bradley

Narrado por: George Weightman, Katie Leung

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF SUMMER 2024 • A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • HUGO AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST NOVEL • WINNER OF THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD FOR SCIENCE FICTION • A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, VANITY FAIR, ESQUIRE, VOX, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, THE INDEPENDENT, PARADE, KIRKUS REVIEWS, AND MORE…

“This summer’s hottest debut.” —Cosmopolitan • “Witty, sexy escapist fiction [that] packs a substantial punch...Fresh and thrilling.” —Los Angeles Times • “Electric...I loved every second.” —Emily Henry

“Utterly winning...Imagine if The Time Traveler’s Wife had an affair with A Gentleman in Moscow...Readers, I envy you: There’s a smart, witty novel in your future.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post

A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all: Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley.

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,” “Spotify,” and “the collapse of the British Empire.” But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future.

An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks: What does it mean to defy history, when history is living in your house? Kaliane Bradley’s answer is a blazing, unforgettable testament to what we owe each other in a changing world.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Audiobook reader Katie Leung’s excellent narration covers events in the present, demonstrating a deft ability to recreate the cadences of different time periods for different expats. George Weightman narrates moments from the characters’ pasts, giving these reflections a solemn, nostalgic tone. Together, their complementary narrative styles reflect the time-twisting, culture-crossing nature of this book. Weightman and Leung bring the many histories and personalities of this time-travel adventure to life, making The Ministry of Time a uniquely immersive listening experience." (—Tami Orendain)

"Katie Leung narrates this time-travel novel from the point of view of the unnamed protagonist, who works as a “bridge” at the British government’s Ministry of Time. They have technology that allows them to pluck people out of time and are studying whether these “expats” can survive with no ill effects. The bridge is helping her expat, 1800s polar explorer Graham Gore, adapt to the future; they live together and inevitably grow closer. Leung’s Graham is especially appealing, as is her performance of Margaret, an expat from the seventeenth century whose accent is described as unplaceable and who takes to modern times surprisingly well. George Weightman sounds like he was plucked right out of the era himself as he narrates interspersed sections that detail Graham’s doomed polar expedition."

So much smoking

The story was fine, but the author uses smoking as a literary device. He ashed here, he ashed there, he tried to ash but couldn’t, he held it, he put it down, he picked it up with two fingers, he smelled like it, he stared at the sky while doing it, he blah blah blah blah blah. 🤮

the story was interesting

The performance was monotone. perhaps with a different reader, the whole experience would have been better

Interesting premise but…

This idea has so much potential. The characters weren’t developed enough for me to grasp who they were and how they related to each other. I couldn’t figure out the purpose of the ministry and needed a little more action to move the story along. Not much happened in the year that these two lived together. Graham was in training to be an agent for the Monistry but what does that mean? The description of their daily activities always mentioned Graham smoking but not much else. I could feel the chemistry building in Chapter 1 but then I didn’t feel it after that.

It was hard to like the narrator/main character. She came across as cold and unemotional. Her jealous lunatic-girlfriend behavior at the most inopportune time ruined the moment for me. And she is not the heroine anyone would aspire to be which might be the point but it would be nice to root for at least one of these characters. I am willing to try another book from this author though because she is creative and I wanted to like this book more.

Outstanding

Beautifully written, cross cultural experience of time as culture, and personality as transcendent.
just when you think the story is lulling you into a pleasant repast through her fascinating work and relationships, and that intrigue will be a minor player after all, it suddenly all comes into focus, before going sideways and surprising you again.

Not my fave

Maybe it was the mono tone narration but this was very slow and dull until all of the sudden it wasn’t. By then I didn’t care