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Life After Life

A Novel

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Life After Life

Written by: Kate Atkinson
Narrated by: Fenella Woolgar
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"Is there Life After Life, chance after chance to rewrite one's destiny? That is the question posed by Atkinson's tale and brought to life by the miracle of her talent." —Toronto Star

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 is Kate Atkinson at her most profound and inventive, in a novel that celebrates the best and worst of ourselves. Alternate History Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Literary Fiction Mystery Science Fiction Military War
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What the critics say

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GLOBE AND MAIL, TIME, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, USA TODAY, AMAZON, AND MORE
A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF THE 21ST CENTURY

WINNER OF THE COSTA NOVEL AWARD
WINNER OF THE WATERSTONES AUTHOR OF THE YEAR AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
LONGLISTED FOR THE IMPAC DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD

"Don't make the mistake of thinking that the novel itself is anything other than illuminating. . . . The book transcends its subject matter to become a treatise on how to be human. . . . Art is long and life is short, but not too short to treat yourself to the pleasures of Kate Atkinson's prose along the way." —The Globe and Mail

"Gripping . . . Breathless. . . . A masterful balancing act. Atkinson keeps the reader . . . constantly on edge, expecting the darkness to fall at any moment. . . . Life After Life is funny, thought-provoking and poignant. It combines the charms of hearth and home with the ravages of wartime. It's a love letter to a certain kind of English life but also as engrossing as a thriller." —Winnipeg Free Press

Continue the series
A God in Ruins cover art
A God in Ruins Written by: Kate Atkinson
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It took a long time for this to get interesting. The repetitiveness didn’t bother me so much as the long duration of nothing happening. It should be edited down to half its current length.

Interesting concept but way too long

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Jumped narrators and timelines without great flow. Stopped reading at hr3 because of little happening

slow and hard to follow

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This is an astonishing book and one if my favourites. I didn’t think it could be any better but this performance and the experience of listening to it took it to another level. Now to listen to A God in Ruins.

One of my favourites

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Not the best audible book. Very confusing with a lot of characters and a lot of jumping around in the story. Using two narrators might have helped Overall disappointing.

Confusing

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Not a book that you can multitask with. The time lines were confusing and the characters were confusing. Not my favourite

Confusing

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