Ursula Todd is born in a snowstorm in England in 1910, and dies before she's taken her first breath. Then she is born again, and lives a little longer. And so on, Ursula getting chance after chance to live her life, to improve on the last life, to spend more time with her family, to learn from her mistakes, and perhaps even to save the world.
Life After Life is an expansive, sweeping work, clocking in at more than 600 pages, covering the 20th century's biggest conflicts, and tackling the concept of time and reincarnation. Yet for all that, it's a wonderfully intimate read, one that draws the reader into its world fully - I felt like I was living alongside Ursula as she grew up. Atkinson is so clever in this book, changing one thing to slightly make all the difference to each of Ursula's lifetimes. Sometimes that one change is huge, sometimes it's tiny.
