Picked up at Goodwill today. From the flap:

What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?

On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.

Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can -- will she?

Darkly comic, startlingly poignant, and utterly original -- this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best.

This is an excellent story! I was drawn in from the first and found it hard to put down. It's been difficult to describe to people who have asked what I'm reading, though. "So this girl keeps being born and dying and being born again. She's always born on February 11, 1910. The first time she dies at birth. The next time she survives birth but is drowned as a small child. The next time, she has a premonition/fear that keeps her from drowning so she lives longer and dies another way." Not the happiest sounding book.

There is tragedy in this story but there is also beauty and love and hope. One hope is that Ursula will keep being reborn until she "gets it right," although at the end of the book it appears that the rebirth cycle is infinite. And I was left to ponder what it means to "get it right" anyway. In one life, Ursula regrets not having children and yet the life in which she had a child was far from perfect. I guess the point is that we all just muddle through the best we can; we might make some decisions differently if we knew what would happen but then we'd not know what the change in decision would precipitate.

Atkinson is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. This book is a wonderful experiment in "what ifs," a story well-told, with wonderful character development and lots of heart. I recommend it!

Will send to mrsjones as soon as I scrape up some cash for postage.

I've taken an inexcusably long time to send this out, but finally mailed it to mrsjones today via Media Rate. Enjoy, and please accept my apology for being so slow!

Thank you so much for this RABCK! Can't wait to read it.

Left in the LFL on Main St. enjoy!