The premise: a little girl visits a dying man to tell him the world is ending and he has to prevent it.
I almost didn’t get past this point because I figured “great…another dystopian novel continuing the wave of pitiful dystopian novels we’ve had over the last few years.”Pressing on from a sense of obligation (I’d bought it on sale), I discovered the error of my ways. Not dystopian. Not at all. It’s…literary fiction? Philosophical fiction? Realistic fiction? I don’t know what it is, but the story is amazing.
You see, Harry August has this…problem. Every time he dies, he’s reborn in the same place and the same time as every life before, and he remembers.
That could sound like one of those books where people get trapped in the same day, but it’s not. Far from it – he gets to relive his entire life, every life, and this opens some vast possibilities. These lives raise deep questions but also leave you on the edge of your seat. In theory you know what tomorrow holds; reality says you don’t.
It also raises lots of questions, and now he’s got this girl telling him the world is ending and he has to prevent it.
Claire North is a fantastic author, at least I’d say that based on this book. She’s put out a few other books in a similarish strain which I intend to read in the next couple of months, but regardless of how those turn out, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August* is a fantastic read that’ll “knock your socks off.”
*Reminder: if you buy the book by clicking on the picture or my links, I’ll get a few pennies from your purchase, so thanks to you if you do, but thanks either way as long as you read the book.