Ursula Beresford Todd was born on a snowy February day in 1910, and then she died. On the same snowy day in February, 1910, Ursula was born again, into the same loving family as before.  She does not realize that she has been given the gift of life over and over again, but at certain key moments she has a sense that a certain choice, which turned out badly in a previous life, should not be made again.  Apart from this sense of  de ja vu,  she seems unaware of her previous lives or that she is actually living life after life.

In spite of her gift, life is very precarious for Ursula, and she dies in many ways: drowning, falling of a roof, influenza, or being beaten to death by an abusive husband, to name just a few. However after negotiating these early deaths a more ominous threat emerges; the threat of war and the rise of Nazi power and Ursula is faced with new choices and new lives. Atkinson’s descriptions of  what happened to ordinary people during the London Blitz are unforgettable.

Atkinson has taken a very provocative idea and created a memorable character in Ursula, who we get to know deeply as we see her struggle to get it right through numerous lives. However, in spite of our intimate knowledge of Ursula and having gone through her deaths on numerous occasions, there is a strange distance between Ursula and the reader, almost as if she is keeping you at arms length and asking for just a small remnant of privacy. Atkinson is a good writer and creates interesting supporting characters like her mother Sylvie and Bridget or Mrs. Glover, the cook and is able to sustain your interest until the very end.

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 Stars out of 5)

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Keith, Marian and Lauren

Book Study Worthy? Yes!

Read in ebook format.