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The Ministry of Time
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF SUMMER 2024 • A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD FOR SCIENCE FICTION • A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, VANITY FAIR, ESQUIRE, VOX, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, THE INDEPENDENT, PARADE, KIRKUS REVIEWS, AND MORE…
“This summer’s hottest debut.” —Cosmopolitan • “Witty, sexy escapist fiction [that] packs a substantial punch...Fresh and thrilling.” —Los Angeles Times • “Electric...I loved every second.” —Emily Henry
“Utterly winning...Imagine if The Time Traveler’s Wife had an affair with A Gentleman in Moscow...Readers, I envy you: There’s a smart, witty novel in your future.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post
A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all: Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley.
In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.
She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,” “Spotify,” and “the collapse of the British Empire.” But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.
Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future.
An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks: What does it mean to defy history, when history is living in your house? Kaliane Bradley’s answer is a blazing, unforgettable testament to what we owe each other in a changing world.
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Reviews
I loved this book. Interesting premise.
By Reclusive1
You know those movies where you wait for them to start yet they don’t seem to until the end? And at the end you are left wondering what the start really had to do with the story anyway?
By Nuké
DNF'd this at 29%. It’s a great idea for a story, but it moves slow and the prose is awkward and clunky. Actually I'm not even sure it actually moves slow, but it feels slow because the writing is so tough to chew through. It feels strained and overworked, stuffed to the bursting point with clumsily employed SAT words and similes tying way too hard to be clever. LIke the author is desperately trying to prove to us she's very intelligent. I honest to gods have no doubt that 9 times out of 10, she is the smartest person in the room. I hope with her next novel she'll trust that, so she can just focus on telling a good story. This bears all the markings of a very talented author who hasn’t found their voice and is working too hard to prove they have one. It’s not a physics book. A great story is effortless to read and quick to captivate your imagination. I found this book could do neither of those things.
By nathan
That’s all I can write: wow!
By Frehley7
It seemed like I could feel the excitement of this author as she wrote the story. I’m an engineer by training so writing is not my skill, but I would say the author uses words in ways I’ve never heard before - with lots of alliteration (if I’m saying that correctly) - very refreshing to read. The story itself is fresh and interesting. Love the way we never know the main character’s name yet develop a deep understanding (as book characters go) of who she is. I’d gladly read more from the author…
By GS-work