This debut novel is set to be one of the block-busters of the Summer and already slated for a TV adaptation by the BBC. The high-concept sci-fi world allows Bradley to explore weighty themes of identity, immigration, trauma and human nature.
The unnamed narrator, who is of mixed heritage, works for the Ministry of Time, “helping” immigrants brought to the present from various pasts, who are now integrating into modern society. Her loyalty to her government employers is challenged as she becomes closer to her assigned “expat”, Commander Graham Gore (a real historical figure, who disappeared from an Arctic exploration in 1847), and observes how he is treated and how he tries to come to terms with what has been done to him.
This story made me think of the experience of people in a world that isn’t built for them, and how easy it is to take simple things for granted. The dehumanisation and denial of freedoms to the “expats” in the novel suggests a parallel to what immigrants and other racial minorities have experienced through the centuries.
But, although we can see problems in our past and might desire, if we could, to go back and change things, the novel suggests that this might also be a way of exerting power that we are not ready to undertake. What does the world become when everything that makes it the way it is, is changed? We want to make the world a better place but how do we do that?
Bradley’s answer is hopeful: whether or not we can change the big problems in life and in the world, we can change who we are by caring for ourselves and for others and, by doing so, change their world. When I finished it, I stared at my wall for quite a while, taking it all in! I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a thought-provoking read with a little bit of romance and plenty of adventure thrown in.
Anna