Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Fiction

Déjà vu isn’t just a funny feeling for Ursula Todd. When she gets that odd sensation that a situation is familiar, it could be because she has already lived through it. Ursula is born and dies, repeatedly, in different ways and at different points on a constantly varying life path. Her unusual life encounters new histories large and small—war, epidemics, war again; rape, childbirth, love affairs, a bad marriage, and more. As Ursula relives segments of her life, she seems to have some control over the path each life takes, but it isn’t always to the best effect. What kind of impact does one life have? Can one person, living a different life, change the course of history? One character asks, “What if we had a chance to do it again and again until we finally got it right? Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”