The tagline alone, when I read the blurb for Life After Life, made me realise that I absolutely had to read this book, and I am so, so glad I have done.
It's been on my TBR (to be read) pile for a good few weeks/months now as I've had such a large quantity of books that have been waiting to be read, so when I finally picked it up last week I was incredibly excited.
The concept of being able to go back and try again is something that has been in my head for years. I spent the majority of my teenage years suffering from very bad depression, so I barely lived. I shut myself away from all society and just tried to get by on a day to day basis. I also made some shockingly bad decisions. I would do anything to be able to go back and have these years again, to do things right and eliminate some of the mistakes I've made, because I know my life would be so much different now if I could.
So with this in mind when I began the book, I got immediately sucked into Atkinson's beautiful portrayal of English country living in the 20's and 30's. Her vivid protagonist, Ursula, was wonderfully easy to identify with on a personal level, and seeing the world through her eyes was absolutely fascinating. Atkinson's attention to detail on a historical level (especially in her descriptions of pre-WW2 Germany and the time Ursula spends with Adolf Hitler) are stupendous, and her descriptions of the Blitz in London actually left me in tears on more than one occasion.
Although this deviates completely in genre from what I normally read, I would honestly not hesitate to recommend it to anyone. My friends quite frequently look to me for book recommendations, and this will be another one passed around our little group-I'm interested in getting their perspective on what is now one of my favourite stories to have read this year.
It has now been several hours since I finished the book, and although I have physically closed it and put it back on the shelf, it is still at the forefront of my mind, sticking with me in the way that only very special books do. It is definitely worthy of the title of Costa Novel Award Winner 2013, and I will now be eagerly anticipating further novels from Atkinson in the future.
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