The Ministry of Time
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by Kaliane Bradley
Publication Date: May 7, 2024
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Hardcover: 352 Pages
Publisher Description
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: Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley.
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 tasked with working 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.
Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future.
An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks: What does it mean to defy history, when history is living in your house? Kaliane Bradley’s answer is a blazing, unforgettable testament to what we owe each other in a changing world.
About the author
Kaliane Bradley is a British-Cambodian writer and editor based in London. She was the winner of the 2022 Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Prize and the 2022 V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize.
Praise
“The Ministry of Time reads like a novel that was written for pleasure . . . this is the kind of summer romp that also sparks real thought. . . . [G]ive in to the tide of this book, and let it pull you along. It’s very smart; it’s very silly; and the obvious fun never obscures completely the sheer, gorgeous, wild stretch of her ideas.”—Ella Risbridger, The Guardian
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“[Bradley’s] utterly winning book is a result of violating not so much the laws of physics as the boundaries of genre. Imagine if The Time Traveler’s Wife had an affair with A Gentleman in Moscow. . . You’d need a nuclear-powered flux capacitor to generate more charisma than Gore. . . His banter with the narrator crackles off the page . . . Readers, I envy you: There’s a smart, witty novel in your future.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post
“Bradley pulls off a rare feat. The Ministry of Time doesn’t stoop to easy answers and doesn’t devolve into polemic. It’s a smart, gripping work that’s also a feast for the senses. An assassination, moles, questions of identity and violence wreak havoc on our happy lovers and the bubble they create in London. Yet our affection for them is as fresh and thrilling as theirs is for one another . . . An edgy, playful and provocative book that’s likely to be the most thought-provoking romance novel of the summer. “—Lauren LeBlanc, Los Angeles Times
“A hilarious yet poignant take on dislocation, loss, and oddball community . . . A twisty plotline that incorporates plenty of John le Carré and Mick Herron spy-craft references . . . with the silly, incisive, and spot-on comedy of Douglas Adams.”—Daneet Steffens, The Boston Globe
“Bradley’s writing is clear and stylish, her dialogue dry and sprightly; the serious matters of love and mortality are cloaked in humour, but never too heavily . . . If you loved Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, or the big hit of 2022, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, [The Ministry of Time] will be right up your street . . . A rattling good adventure story too, the twists at the end [are] perfectly earned . . . Don’t wait for this tale to come to the small screen. Crack this book open and you’ll see how time can disappear.”—Erica Wagner, Financial Times
“[The Ministry of Time] basically has everything you would want in a book in one incredible and exhilarating read that you’ll definitely tell all your friends about.” —Cosmopolitan
“A revelatory page-turner.”—People