Kate Atkinson,
This is a very unusual, inventive book. It is the story of a girl Ursula Todd, who seems to relive her life, with a variety of outcomes. Her family realize that she is troubled and take her to a psychiatrist. She is an unusual child, experiencing "deja vu", and at times taking steps to change outcomes, for example she trips her family's maid, to prevent her from going to VE celebrations in London and bringing back influenza which will kill her, Ursula's brother, and almost kill Ursula.
Most of the life stories take place in England prior to or during the first and second world wars. However, two of the segments take place in Germany, in one of them Ursula is married to a German and unable to escape with her child at the start of WWII so she choses to kill them both. In another story she meets the Furer in a bar and shoots him.
The book does not have a finite outcome. This is annoying to some readers. It can be confusing as it jumps back and forth through time with different details and outcomes, however, it was a fascinating read to experience the variety of stories the author develops. It of course makes you think about how things might have turned out differently in our own lives if we had acted differently at certain key points in our life.
This is the second book I have read by this author, she writes very quirky stories. This is a book I will look forward to re-reading.
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