Author: Kate Atkinson
Publication: Hardcover, 2014
Genre: Historical Fiction
TBR Challenge: This is the fourth book I have read in my self-selected 2019 Challenge, created by Roof Beam Reader.
Plot:
Born in 1910, Ursula Todd is the third child in an English family who
experiences every scenario possible in the first half of the 20th
century, with a twist. Ursula is doomed
to live her life again and again, each version ending in unexpected death through
a variety of sometimes (but not always) avoidable scenarios. For example, in one episode, an obnoxious
friend of her brother’s kisses her on her 16th birthday, leading to
all sorts of disaster, including spousal abuse.
In other lives, Ursula sometimes has a strange sense of déjà vu, so the
next time this guy tries to manhandle her she pushes back, thus avoiding that
particular fate but, of course, creating another. The entire book is about fate and how it is unavoidable
in one form or another, all unpredictable.