If you had the ability to turn back time, relive moments, change outcomes....would you?
Ursula Todd is born in 1910 to Hugh and Sylvie at their home, Fox Corner, in the English countryside. She dies at birth. On that same cold, wintry night Ursula Todd is born again, this time with a healthy set of lungs, much to the delight of her weary mother. And so it begins...Ursula dies over and over and then is reborn, each time the events in her life result in a different ending. Her feelings of deja vu haunt her even as a child. Premonitions are unsettling to her. Peculiar, indefineable thoughts fill her brain. Sometimes she feels "as if a memory was being tugged reluctantly out of its hiding place." Doesn't everyone feel this way?
You will meet many memorable characters. Brothers, Maurice and Teddy-one snobbish, cold, and driven by ambition, the other, kind, caring, and adored. Sister Pamela, a refuge in times of uncertainty and the voice of reason. Aunt Izzie, unconventional, eccentric, daring, and a thorn in Sylvie's side. Much of the story takes place during World War II. The brutal atrocities of the war years, from the British point of view, are described in detail. The nightmare of the blitz conjures up gruesome scenes which I am sure the author intended. One scenario has Ursula befriending Eva Braun and meeting Hitler himself. Can she alter the course of history?
The novel jumps between past and present. You may feel that your mind is playing tricks on you. The blurry line between life and death is examined. This is a compelling, complex novel written by a gifted author. Sorrow turns into joy, despair turns into hope, death turns into life. Same events, different endings. You, as a reader, will turn each page wondering what comes next in Ursula's tumultuous life.
The ability to live life over and over and over again until we get it just right. A gift or a curse? What would you choose?
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