“The Ministry of Time” by Kaliane Bradley
The eye-popping cover draws readers like a moths to a flame…and then if you are not hooked by the end of the first page I will eat my hat!
This is a clever, wry, mind-bending novel that delivers all that it promises. This is also a debut novel and it sets the bar very high for other debut novelists this year.
Set in England in the not-too-distant future, the world is indeed going to hell in a handbasket.
The Secret Service, however, has a few cards left to play. Into this scenario walks the narrator – first generation English/Cambodian, youngish, still idealistic enough to swallow the party line and choose to serve King and Country but savvy enough to start to figure stuff out.
After all, not everyone gets to be the ‘bridge’ for a gentleman explorer from the 1800s, brought to the present through an utterly plausible door linking the past and present…and maybe even the future?
As the story gets underway, we experience in what feels like real time, the monumental adjustments required of the ‘expats’ – the five people who have arrived through the door (and survived) from various points in the past.
They are each assigned a ‘bridge’ to live alongside them and help them navigate 21 st century London. This gives rise to some very funny moments, some spicy moments and also a consideration of Britian’s dubious colonialist history.
This novel is as accomplished as it is ambitious and I loved it. It made my brain twist and turn; it made me laugh and it made me gasp. I am recommending it to anyone who loves a good book that springs from original ideas.
Besides, Eleanor Catton gives it a cover endorsement of “Outrageously brilliant.” She’s not wrong. Available at your local independent bookstore.
