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The Ministry of Time

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The Ministry of Time

By: Kaliane Bradley
Narrated by: George Weightman, Katie Leung
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About this listen

The Time Traveller's Wife meets David Mitchell meets Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow meets Kate & Leopold in this debut novel from an award-winning writer.

There are several ways to tell a story.

A boy meets a girl. The past meets the future. A finger meets a trigger. The beginning meets the end. England is forever; England must fall.

A civil servant starts working as a 'bridge' - a liaison, helpmeet and housemate - in an experimental project that brings expatriates from the past into the twenty-first century. This is a science-fiction story.

In a London safehouse in the 2020s, a disorientated Victorian polar explorer chain smokes while listening to Spotify and learning about political correctness. This is a comedy.

During a long, sultry summer - as the shadows around them grow long and dangerous - two people fall in love, against all odds. This is a romance.

The Ministry of Time is a novel about Commander Graham Gore (R.N. c.1809-c.1847) and a woman known only as the bridge. As their relationship turns from the strictly professional into something more and uneasy truths begin to emerge, they are forced to face the reality of the project that brought them together.

Can love triumph over the structures and histories that shape them?

©2024 Kaliane Bradley (P)2024 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction Time Travel England Funny

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Critic reviews

A delightfully audacious screwball comedy (Katie Goh, Fiction to be excited for in 2024)
Within the first couple of pages I was gripped. The novel is clever, witty and thought-provoking, asking the question of what any of us might do if we could engage live with people from the past. Kaliane Bradley is a wonderful writer and I can't wait to read what she does next (Kate Mosse, bestselling author of THE GHOST SHIP)
Holy smokes this novel is an absolute cut above! Kaliane Bradley leaps into a storytelling league of her own. This book is a deadly serious speculative fiction but it is also one of the funniest books I've read in years. It is exciting, surprising, intellectually provocative, weird, radical, tender and moving. I missed it when I was away from it. I will hurry to re-read it. Make room on your bookshelves for a new classic. (Max Porter, bestselling author of SHY)
Smart and affecting, full of ideas plus that slow-burning love story, it's a wonderful debut (David Nicholls, author of YOU ARE HERE)
An outrageously brilliant debut with a premise that just gets more and more original. The Ministry of Time pulls off the neatest trick of speculative fiction, first estranging us from our own era, and then facilitating our immigration back into the present; but it is also a love story, exploratory, sensitive, charged with possibility, and powered by desire, reminding us that history is synonymous with human beings, and that we all have the ability to change it. This is already the best new book I will have read next year (Eleanor Catton, author of BIRNAM WOOD)
All stars
Most relevant
Brilliantly read. Funny, clever and thought-provoking. Was totally gripped. Possibly my favourite book of 2024.

Terrific

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This is a rather good time travel yarn that is spoilt by the insipid love story. Most of the interesting stuff happens near the end of the novel and the growing love between the two main characters is rather tediously described and feels unearned.

Doesn’t live up to the hype.

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Some of the book seemed interesting when you thought the story would go somewhere. It didn’t and it was a real chore to finish. I’d say give it a miss.

The Ministry Of Time

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This made you think of how the future and present time overlap, or could occur. This depends on how you imagine it.provoked by the book. Very interesting and well presented.

interesting view of the future

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Couldn't get into this at all; found it at times tedious and at times confusing. Also quite depressing
Skipped large chunks

Not to my taste

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The writing lends well to the spoken format. Superbly lyrical writing and an excellently unpredictable story.

Glorious

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Oof I wish she’d had a more strenuous editor! I almost gave up on this because of the appalling number of similes which dragged the story down. A real shame because there is a great story under there.

Great yarn but simile overload

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I was wondering which way this story would go but it was fabulous! Thought provoking, interesting and just a great story! Loved it!

Fantastic!

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Not the type of story I'd normally read bur a pleasant surprise. And very good.

Something different

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I won't lie, I found it hard to care for the main character but glad I continued to listen. because at the end it sort of comes together.

you'll get it, if you stick with it!

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