A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson was
written as a companion piece to her novel, Life
After Life. Atkinson won the coveted Costa prize for it as well as for Life After Life and also for Behind the Scenes at the Museum. This is
a rare and unprecedented accomplishment.
I have been a fan of Atkinson since reading Behind the Scenes and her novels never disappoint.
A God in Ruins is told as the life
story of Teddy, (brother of Ursula in Life
after Life). The setting is during and after WWII. The story begins with
Teddy as a child and ends with his death. Perhaps. He is a RAF pilot during the
London blitz and the strategic bombing of Germany. The number of deaths of
these boy-pilots (and they were boys) will astonish you. They were often sitting
ducks for German counter attacks and they knew it. You meet not only Teddy but
his bomber crews, his family, his friends, his wife, his lovers and his pets.
You become deeply invested in the outcome of each life. Once again as has often
been the theme of my recent reading, it explores the choices made and the paths
taken and not taken.
My
taste in literature rarely centers around war and certainly never RAF bombers.
However, I trusted Atkinson to deliver. She tells the story forwards, backwards,
present and past and often you know what is going to happen before reading
about the event itself. How can this work? I have no idea, but it does. Each
event threads its way through the narrative in a non-linear way…but there are
no loose ends. Perhaps because I often live life in a linear way, I found this
extremely satisfying.
I
have yet to read Life After Life, but
after this, I can’t wait.
Stellar.
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