The Ministry of Time
The romantic, sci-fi, comedic, literary, genre-defying bestseller
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4.2 • 48 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
⭐ The sensational Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller ⭐
⭐ Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and a finalist for a Hugo Award ⭐
'The hit of the year'
Guardian
A civil servant is offered a lucrative job in a mysterious new government ministry gathering 'expats' from across history to test whether time-travel is feasible.
Her role is to work as a 'bridge': living with, supporting and monitoring expat '1847' - Commander Graham Gore, a former Victorian polar explorer. Gore, an adventurer by trade, soon adjusts to this bizarre new world of washing machines, feminism and Spotify; and during a long, sultry summer the pair move from awkwardness to friendship to something more.
But as the true shape of the project that brought them together begins to emerge, Gore and the bridge are forced to confront their past choices and imagined futures. Can love triumph over the histories that have shaped them? And how do you defy that history when it is living in your house?
'Addictive'
Independent
'Crack this book open and you'll see how time can disappear'
Financial Times
'Readers, I envy you: there's a smart, witty novel in your future'
Washington Post
'Kaliane Bradley's fish-out-of-water rom-com has a winning premise. [...] The book's combination of whimsy and seriousness works brilliantly.'
Sunday Times, Summer Reads
'This time-travelling love story is the perfect mix of witty, sexy and moving.'
Good Housekeeping, 50 best ever beach reads
⭐ A Barack Obama reading pick
⭐ Shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize
⭐ Shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction
⭐ Shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award
⭐ Shortlisted for the Climate Fiction Prize
⭐ Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction
⭐ Longlisted for the Jhalak Prize
⭐ Longlisted for a British Book Award
⭐ A book of the year for: the Sunday Times, New York Times, Guardian, Independent, Evening Standard, Spectator, Red, NPR, Vanity Fair, People, Slate, Advocate, Sydney Morning Herald, Globe and Mail, Den of Geek, Good Housekeeping, Goodreads, NetGalley and Smithsonian Magazine
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Kaliane Bradley's bold and imaginative debut novel, The Ministry of Time, is a time-travel screwball comedy that tackles colonialism, culture and personal identity. It’s set in the near future, when a self-assured civil servant takes on a new role as companion to a charismatic military officer who’s been secretly time-travelled from the 1800s by the British government. Fully embracing this premise, Bradley explores the ironies of a system that tasks the daughter of a refugee with managing a relic of the Empire. At its centre, it’s a scathing critique, but the novel is also bursting with blockbuster moments of comedy, romance, betrayal and espionage. Bradley’s writing style is direct and reflective, with witty dialogue and an enjoyable, lively cadence. Ambitious, enlightening and entertaining, this book is a remarkable achievement.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British Cambodian writer Bradley's clever debut features time travel, romance, cloak-and-dagger plotting, and a critique of the British Empire. The unnamed narrator, who works as a translator for Britain's Ministry of Defence sometime in the near future, is selected by the government to aid a newly formed agency to process time travelers from the past. Her assigned "expat" is real-life polar explorer Lt. Graham Gore, who has arrived in the future sometime before his death during the ill-fated 1845 Franklin expedition, a mind-bender Bradley heads off at the pass ("Anyone who has ever watched a film with time-travel... will know that the moment you start to think about the physics of it, you are in a crock of shit"). The narrator, whose mother was a Cambodian refugee, feels a kinship with Gore's sense of disorientation. The roguishly handsome naval officer lives with her as part of the terms of the assignment, and her account of their burgeoning mutual attraction is interspersed with episodes from Gore's disastrous journey to the Arctic. A thriller-like scenario regarding mortal threats to the narrator and Gore feels secondary; more fruitful are Bradley's depictions of the ways in which time travelers react to modern nightclubs, sexual freedoms, and the news that the empire has "collapse." It's a sly and ingenious vehicle for commentary on the disruptions and displacements of modern life.
Customer Reviews
5 Star
Brilliant