Life After Life

About “Life After Life”

A 2013 novel by Kate Atkinson follows Ursula Todd, who is born on a cold and snowy night in 1910. She dies before she can take her first breath, but on the same night, she is born again, survives, and begins a life that is anything but ordinary. Throughout the story, Ursula dies multiple times in different ways as the century progresses toward another world war. The novel explores whether her repeated lives give her the ability to change history and prevent disaster. It raises the question of whether she would choose to do so.