The Ministry of Time
Ratings69
Average rating3.7
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK
“This summer’s hottest debut.” —Cosmopolitan • “Witty, sexy escapist fiction [that] packs a substantial punch...It’s a smart, gripping work that’s also a feast for the senses...Fresh and thrilling.” —Los Angeles Times • “Electric...I loved every second.” —Emily Henry
“Utterly winning...Imagine if The Time Traveler’s Wife had an affair with A Gentleman in Moscow...Readers, I envy you: There’s a smart, witty novel in your future.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post
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.
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One of my favorite things to wonder is what a random person from the distant past would think of today’s world. If plucked from their time and dropped into ours, what would they think of electricity, internet, modern medicine? What about smaller stuff, like the way we talk, current fashion, and, depending on when exactly they’re from, how long everyone lives? It’s a fascinating thing to think about. And now I have a new thing to wonder: What on earth gave Kaliane Bradley the right to take this concept and break my heart with it!?
The Ministry of Time is a great example of a book whos author knows exactly what they’re doing. Kaliane Bradley has researched the time periods of her characters so well that they feel completely real and alive (and in the case of Graham Gore, he actually was alive in the 1800s as a member of the Royal Navy and an explorer, though very little is known about his life other than that). They jump off the page and say “Look at me! I’m from the past and I’m amazed by your world!” This is especially the case with Margaret, a woman from the 1600s, which we all know is a time when women weren’t treated very well. Margaret absolutely thrives in the 21st century, taking great interest in feminism, crop tops, and the freedom she never saw or even dreamed of in her life before time travel. I loved reading about her adventures and how she took to modern life with such gusto.
The romance between the MC and Graham is an extremely slow burn and I enjoyed every minute of it. Between the MC’s ‘modern-day woman’ views and Graham’s ‘man from the 1800s’ behaviors, they had some incredible, laugh out loud banter. Their relationship is complicated, but sweet, and I love that their romance isn’t the main focus. As the daughter of a woman from Cambodia, our MC is half british, half Cambodian, and she experiences thinly-veiled racism and xenophobia on a regular basis. As she shares her experiences, there are parallels between her story and that of Graham’s who, as an ‘expat’ (as they call the time-travelers), is something of a migrant himself, though he has come from the past rather than another country, which I found very interesting.
Although there was a part towards the end of the book that felt a little cliché, I am overall very happy with The Ministry of Time and I loved the ending. I’d easily recommend this one to anyone who loves speculative fiction, slow burn romance, or the concept of bringing people forth from the past to see what the heck they’d think of the future.
A civil servant in the near future is tasked with care of a time-traveler, a naval officer from 1847, Graham Gore. She is to observe him and help him cope with life in the present day. The Ministry, for whom she works, is said to be studying several time-travelers from the past to study the effects of time-travel on humans and on the timeline.
Gore and the other time-travelers are delightful in their wit, their charm, and their responses to the changes in their worlds. I enjoyed the humor and the characters very much. If everything didn't quite pull together, logically-speaking and scientifically-speaking, my response is, Oh well, and Who cares? Too much fun to miss this little gem.
