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“I wondered what would have happened if Hitler had been kidnapped as a baby and brought up differently,” she says. The inspiration: A very simple notion led to Atkinson’s premise. You send your characters through the looking glass, then you bring them back, get inside their heads and ask, ‘So what did that feel like?’ ” Many of the novel’s scenes take place during the Blitz, when England was under attack by Germany, and this backdrop evokes the very real public and private suffering going on at the time. “Some of the most beautiful language ever produced is the King James Bible and the metaphysical poets and Shakespeare, and it’s a shame not to pay tribute to them,” Atkinson says. The tale is enriched with literary references and philosophies introduced by the characters in easily digestible forms. Why we love it: Atkinson is a master, weaving together the many strands of the story, making each narrative as compelling as the last. But slowly, with each new life, she comes to realize they’re steering her away from calamities she’s already experienced and are leading her, pistol in hand, to a meeting with a man named Hitler. Often, Ursula has compulsive urges she can’t explain to anyone, even herself. As a child she spends fraught summer days with her family at their English country home as an adult she survives being bombed while volunteering in Second World War rescue missions. The setting of Life after Life is a time in history as tumultuous as Ursula’s own life-and-death cycle. Flip the page: The doctor arrives in good time and Ursula lives. What it’s about: When the doctor is delayed by a snowstorm during her traumatic birth, baby Ursula Todd dies. The story follows Ursula from her birth in 1910 as she continually relives the same life, taking different forks in the road each time she’s reborn. After Case Histories and One Good Turn, it was her third novel to feature the former private detective Jackson Brodie, who makes a welcome return in Started Early, Took My Dog.What if you lived your life over and over again? Life after Life is a Sliding Doors meets Back to the Future adventure in novel form. When Will There Be Good News? was voted Richard & Judy Book Best Read of the Year. She is the author of a collection of short stories, Not the End of the World, and of the critically acclaimed novels Human Croquet, Emotionally Weird, Case Histories, and One Good Turn.Ĭase Histories introduced her readers to Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, and won the Saltire Book of the Year Award and the Prix Westminster. Her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and she has been a critically acclaimed international bestselling author ever since. After Case Histories and One Good Turn, it was her third novel to fea Kate Atkinson was born in York and now lives in Edinburgh. Case Histories introduced her readers to Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, and won the Saltire Book of the Year Award and the Prix Westminster. She is the author of a collection of short stories, Not the End of the World, and of the critically acclaimed novels Human Croquet, Emotionally Weird, Case Histories, and One Good Turn. Kate Atkinson was born in York and now lives in Edinburgh.