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Ursula is not particularly romantic minded, at least not after about age 16, an age at which she has vague romantic longings for (and in one lifetime, a bit of a secret romance with) a neighbor boy. Ursula has various relationships in her sundry lives, but most of them are not particularly romantic – an abusive marriage, an adulterous affair, another marriage to an ambitious Nazi, some hasty and furtive couplings performed in the shadows of war. I want to be clear Life After Life is not a romance. The blitz is vividly and grimly brought to life, almost too much so for me it’s heavy stuff. The latter calamity takes Ursula several tries to live through intact (and honestly she never really seems quite alright, afterward). The book spans the bulk of the 20th century, focusing particularly on Ursula’s growing-up years (marked by the Great War and the subsequent influenza epidemic) and the horrors of the London Blitz during World War II. Life After Life poses the question, “What if we had a chance to do it again and again, until we finally did get it right? Wouldn’t that be wonderful?” Ursula does have that chance, though I’m not sure she finds it that wonderful she experiences a fair amount of suffering, usually before dying an ignominious death. An amateur painter who has set up his easel on the beach notices Ursula in the water and saves her. She grows up to be a vigorous and happy child, despite the fact that she’s almost lost at birth (the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck) and again is rescued from drowning at four while on family holiday. But Ursula is saved and thrives until June 1914, when on a family holiday, she drowns at the beach. It’s a good thing that he’s there, as Ursula is born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. He’s able to make the trip just before the roads close due to bad weather. Fellowes arrives at Fox Corner just in time to save the child later christened Ursula Todd from dying at birth. Stopped suddenly like a bird dropped from the sky. The child, a girl, comes too quickly, with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, and dies before she can draw her first breath: The child’s mother, Sylvie Todd, has only the family maid, Bridget (who is all of 14, and new to the position), to rely upon. The child’s father is away on family business. The doctor hasn’t arrived, due to a snowstorm raging outside. In February 1910, in a modest English country home called Fox Corner, a baby is born early. Life After Life was something a bit different for her, as it was for me. My aunt lent me this book she and I do not usually have the same literary tastes, hers tilting strongly in favor of endless novels of the Tudor court (I think she could name the kings and queens of England, and most of their relatives, in her sleep). Jennie A- Reviews / Featured English setting / Fantasy / Historical fiction / Literary fiction / Speculative-Fiction / WWI / WWII 18 Comments OctoREVIEW: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson