Kate Atkinson's previous book Life after Life told the story of Ursula Todd who dies many times but is reborn each time and thus continues living. Described as a companion novel A God in Ruins is presented as a rather more straightforward tale that tells the life story of Ursula's younger brother, Teddy.
The majority of the story concerns Teddy's exploits as an RAF pilot during WW2 but it tells the story of his whole life and portrays his relationship with his family.
I'm not a huge fan of WW2 fiction but this was very well researched and written, however I did prefer the parts of the story that were to do with his 'normal life' before and after the war.
(The story is told in a series of episodes that jump back and forth in time from Teddy's distant childhood until the present day.)
I did like this book but I didn't really enjoy it. It took me a while to get into the story and whilst I didn't find the swapping between different periods and episodes to be confusing I did find that it interrupted the flow of the tale somehow. The main problem with this book was that I found it to be a very depressing read - it took me a while to get through this as I found that I had to be in the right mood to read it.
There's a big twist at the end of the story, that I won't reveal, that changes the nature of the whole book.
Overall whilst it's a superbly recounted story told by a talented writer for me there was something lacking. I'm usually bowled over by Kate Atkinson's work and although this is a very good book it was a disappointment for me.
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