A God in Ruins is a follow up to Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life. It is a family saga of sorts; but whereas the first book was centred around Ursula Todd, this one follows the life of her younger brother Teddy.
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Unlike the first book A God in Ruins doesn’t take a ‘Sliding Doors’ approach to the life of the main character but it does hop backwards and forwards in time from Teddy’s birth in the 1920 through to the 21st century. Life After Life deals with Ursula’s experiences during the Blitz. In A God in Ruins Teddy becomes a bomber pilot and his experiences of bombing raids over Germany contrast with his older sister’s war time experience. But this book stands alone and it is not necessary to have read the first.
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This book is much more than Teddy’s war experiences though. It deals with his life and family relationships within the Todd family before and after the war; the chapters set in the 1960s were especially good.
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For me the time hopping backwards and forwards did not really add anything to the enjoyment of reading the book and about halfway through I switched to reading the chapters in chronological order which made it easier to follow the narrative.
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*Review written by David Cutts on behalf of Nicola's Book Lounge.