Pamela Norris
Death on Repeat
Life After Life
By Kate Atkinson
Doubleday 479pp £18.99
Life After Life explores the alternative lives of a child, Ursula Todd, born in England in 1910. In one version of the story, she dies at birth, strangled by the umbilical cord; in another, she survives this crisis only to drown in her fifth year, during a seaside holiday. In other variants (and this is just a selection), she perishes in the influenza epidemic after the First World War, is murdered by an abusive husband, is killed in the London Blitz, commits suicide in Germany and is poisoned by fumes from an unlit gas heater. The differing accounts of Ursula’s life are outlined in a series of parallel sections. There is considerable repetition, but the effect is kaleidoscopic, each storyline adding new information and perspective. The purpose of these variations appears to be the disquieting idea that it is possible to live again and again until finally one ‘gets it right’, but Ursula’s many misadventures emphasise the randomness of destiny: ‘One could lose everything in the blink of an eye, the slip of a foot.’
In the scene that dramatically opens Life After Life, Ursula is shot by bodyguards as she attempts to assassinate Hitler in 1930 before he became chancellor of Germany. This is the most spectacular of the many ‘what-ifs’ that punctuate the book, but Kate Atkinson’s focus is less on the great
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm