But his stoic, British inability to open up to people shuts down many of his potential paths.Īnd slowly a pattern emerges, of telling, crippling silences. Ursula's brother Teddy, who died in the war in her story, gets his own chance to live an alternate life in this novel. Life After Life explored human potential through a sophisticated version of a Choose Your Own Adventure story, with protagonist Ursula Todd dying over and over, then continuing through iterations of lives where she made different choices or had better luck.Ī God In Ruins isn't about the freedom of options, but about self-imposed barriers. Atkinson's companion novel to her 2013 best-seller, Life After Life, brings back familiar characters and invents many new ones, but to different ends. It's only a tiny coda to the vivid story of the plane crash and the gunner's death, but the exchange still feels central to A God In Ruins. But Teddy claims it's tea, "not because she wouldn't have been interested but because it was a private thing." It's actually the blood of one of his World War II air crew, who died in his arms after their plane was shot down. It happens in passing, in half a sentence: She asks about the stain on an image of Teddy and his long-dead wife Nancy. The moment in Kate Atkinson's A God In Ruins when protagonist Teddy Todd lies to his granddaughter about an old photograph isn't a grand climax. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title A God in Ruins Author Kate Atkinson
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