My top 5 books read this summer by Sophie Duffy

This afternoon I have a bonus selection of top 5 bonus read this summer from Sophie Duffy, author of The Generation Game and This Holey Life.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right?

During a snowstorm in England in 1910, a baby is born and dies before she can take her first breath.

During a snowstorm in England in 1910, the same baby is born and lives to tell the tale.

What if there were second chances? And third chances? In fact an infinite number of chances to live your life? Would you eventually be able to save the world from its own inevitable destiny? And would you even want to?

Life After Life follows Ursula Todd as she lives through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. 

This is Kate Atkinson at the top of her game. I have read and loved every one of her novels and she always surprises and moves me. Her turn of phrase is both comforting Alan Bennett style, and quirky and startling. The structure of this novel is perhaps what will make this book talked about for a long time. Ingenious. (Oh yes. And she’s funny.)