The Arroyo Book Club will be reading Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life for our January meeting. This is a book that uses the device of reliving a life to examine a time and place in detail. It seems like it will be an interesting read. The catalog summary describes it with:
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.
So… science fiction, realism with a touch of the magical, deeply philosophical, stop by the library for a copy and decide for yourself. We’ll be discussing the book on January 26 at 3:00.
