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Life After Life

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Life After Life

By: Kate Atkinson
Narrated by: Fenella Woolgar
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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 isKate Atkinson at her most profound and inventive, in a novel that celebrates the best and worst of ourselves.

 20th Century Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Literary Fiction War & Military Women's Fiction Romance Heartfelt England
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Critic reviews

Kate Atkinson’s new novel is a box of delights. Ingenious in construction, indefatigably entertaining, it grips the reader’s imagination on the first page and never lets go. If you wish to be moved and astonished, read it. And if you want to give a dazzling present, buy it for your friends.
There aren't enough breathless adjectives to describe Life After Life: Dazzling, witty, moving, joyful, mournful, profound. Wildly inventive, deeply felt. Hilarious. Humane. Simply put: it's ONE OF THE BEST NOVELS I'VE READ THIS CENTURY.
Truly brilliant...Think of Audrey Niffenegger's The TimeTraveler's Wife or David Nicholl's One Day...[or] Martin Amis's Times Arrow...This is a rare book that you want, Ursula-like, to start again the minute you have finished.
Absolutely brilliant...it reminded me a bit of her first book Behind the Scenes at the Museum, which is one of my most favourite books ever.
What makes Atkinson an exceptional writer...is that she does so with an emotional delicacy and understanding that transcend experiment or playfulness. Life After Life gives us a heroine whose fictional underpinning is permanently exposed, whose artificial status is never in doubt; and yet one who feels painfully, horribly real to us.
Merging family saga with a fluid sense of time and an extraordinarily vivid sense of history at its most human level. A dizzying and dazzling tour de force.
Deliriously inventive, sharply imagined and ultimately affecting...Atkinson has written something that amounts to so much more than the sum of its (very many) parts. It almost seems to imply that there are new and mysterious things to feel and say about the nature of life and death, the passing of time, fate and possibility.. . [a]magnificently tender and humane novel.
Brilliant...more than just a terrific story about the impact of one existence on another. Atkinson can knock the socks off any rival in terms of skill and style...The tour de force of the book, though, is Atkinson's recreation of the Blitz...unputdownable
Stunned with tiredness thanks to Kate Atkinson's LIFE AFTER LIFE. Couldn't stop reading. Terrific novel, may be her best yet. So enthralling, so well written, so beautifully constructed. Really, I can't fault it. Will be one of my books of the year.
World events, reimagined characters and second chances told with warmth, wit and consummate skill. (Fanny Blake)
All stars
Most relevant
Kate Atkinson does not disappoint with this story where the main character has several opportunities to relive her life. The story is in true Atkinson style with lots of twists and turns and the narrator's voice is very soothing.If you have enjoyed this author's other novels, you should enjoy this.

Facinating

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I really enjoyed it, and thought Fenella Woolgar has the perfect voice (she has an amazing range and can do male, female and child's voices very convincingly). My only criticism is that it was over-long.... about 45 minutes before the end I was thinking "ok,.. I think we've finally got there"... and we hadn't. But in general I'd certainly recommend it.

Beautifully read

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This book has blown me away. The concept is fascinating while not unfamiliar. Yet the lot that explores and use it is so well crafted. A gripping tale. Fenella’s reading is superb. She is able to adapt her voice for all the characters so this book really comes alive.
If, like me you listen to audio books to help you sleep, and you drop off as you listen (Fenellas voice works for me but I mean that as a compliment) you’ll get an added bit of twist. But it’s so good you’ll just have to find the time to listen to it again.
Best audio book I’ve purchased

Absolutely stunning in concept and delivery

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What did you like most about Life After Life?

Just the whole story - weird on so many levels, but compelling. It left me rather breathless.

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

The story of firewatching in London. It reminded me of my mother's stories of firewatching in Liverpool. And I want to know more.

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

I'm not sure about the narration. Often words were swallowed which was annoying.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, there was too much to take all at once

Any additional comments?

I will be looking at more of Kaye Atkinson's books.

Stick with it - you won'tbe disappointed.

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oh I really struggled with this. could not understand what was going on. remember sliding doors? ..this was more like stuck on a escalator, battled it out to the end in hope of enlightment, but I am still on the dark, nice insight in how it must have felt being in a air raid and lovely narration.

ground hog day

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