Monday, September 16, 2024

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

 



Reviewed by Kristin

In a near future London, a young woman accepts a civil service job without having a complete picture of what that job will entail. She soon learns she is to be a caretaker to someone from two centuries ago, as the ministry has recently worked out how to bring people centuries forward into the current day. The ministry is cautious, and only takes individuals who were about to die anyway. Wars, plagues, and civil unrests, those are all great times to pluck out someone whose disappearance shouldn’t make a ripple in the fabric of time.

The unnamed young woman narrates the story, only identified as a “bridge” working with one of the historical individuals—Commander Graham Gore of Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated Arctic expedition. The five individuals brought forward in time are known as “expats” and sometimes referred to by the year from which they were extracted.

Expat Graham came from 1847, and understandably has a very difficult time accepting some of the changes happening in the world. 9 million people living in London? Indoor plumbing? Women’s bare calves? The enfranchisement of the working class? Spotify? Unthinkable!

The other expats are a woman from 1665 (Plague of London), a lieutenant from 1645 (Battle of Naseby), an army captain from 1916 (Battle of the Somme), and a woman from 1793 (Parisian Reign of Terror). As might be imagined, these characters are highly entertaining as they get to know each other and the vagaries of the modern world.  The ministry is keeping an eye on them, but letting them live in the real world, not just keeping them locked up in a hospital ward.

But, can the ministry be trusted?

Alternately funny, tender, and just slightly spicy, this genre defying debut novel from Kaliane Bradley is a delight.

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