About.com Rating

• Life After Life by Kate Atkinson was published in April 2013
• Publisher: Reagan Arthur Books
• 704 pages

Bestselling author Kate Atkinson's latest novel, Life After Life, was one of the most talked about novels of 2013 despite being a difficult book for reviewers to describe and having an odd premise. Life After Life is, in fact, a departure from Atkinson's previous novels, which I have always enjoyed.  Atkinson is known for works such as Case Histories, which is a crime novel with a literary bent.

  Life After Life, by contrast, is about, Ursula, a woman born in 1910 in England.  What makes Ursula rather unique, is that she dies while she's being born.  And then she's born again and she lives.  And then her birth happens all over again, but differently.

It's hard to describe Atkinson's narrative approach to Life After Life, but it's a little bit like a choose-your-own-adventure story, and after the conclusion of one story Atkinson cheat-flips back to the beginning of the book and plays out different choices.

Life After Life is set in Europe in the first half of the twentieth century, and Ursula's family goes through the first World War, watches the rise of Hitler, and is in London for the blitz in World War II.  The historical background is the perfect match for Ursula's reincarnations -- what if she does something differently; could history change forever?

While Life After Life is difficult to describe, it is certainly an interesting read if you can get through the repetitive first act.