Read. Write. Listen. Create.

This is Kaliane Bradley’s debut novel and I thought the concept for this book was unlike anything I’ve read before. I gave it 3.75 stars out of 5. I am a Harry Potter fan so I found myself multiple times almost saying Ministry of Magic when explaining it to my book club and in a way it does have a magical quality to it, but it’s far different than the world in which The Boy Who Lived resides.

“The Ministry of Time” is described as, “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.” The summary on Goodreads explains it as set “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 asked to work 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.”

One of my favorite writing prompts from elementary school was writing from a different perspective like from an animal’s point of view or someone older or younger than you. This reminded me of that prompt and writing from the perspective of someone who wouldn’t know anything about this century and all the new and strange things they’d encounter. I thought it was done very well. Even the things I wouldn’t even think about were brought up, like how the tastes of apples have changed because of the new types of farming.

This book is very much a cautionary tale about changing history with technology. There’s something more sinister going on than just bringing back people from history. I thought for the most part it was explained well, but there are still some unanswered questions and I don’t always like open endings to books. There’s a reason why we don’t know the narrator’s name, but we do find out why in the end.

I didn’t like the reveal at the end. I can’t say much more without giving it away and saying what happened. It depends on the type of story that is open ended and I don’t think this one worked, but I did really enjoy the historical fiction aspect. Bringing back people from history was a very interesting concept and I liked that part the most. I thought it was written well, except for the unanswered part in the end.