Life After Life has sold half a million copies to date according to Doubleday, and is the bestselling adult book in the UK so far this year.

Life After Life took the Costa novel prize, and last year she was named Waterstones UK author of the year. But the publisher promised that A God in Ruins would 'prove once again that Kate Atkinson is one of the finest novelists of our age'.Ītkinson's debut, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won her the Whitbread book of the year award. ''Could you do that? Could you kill a baby? With a gun? Or what if you had no gun, how about with your bare hands? In cold blood.' If I thought it would save Teddy, Ursula thought … Not just Teddy, of course, the rest of the world, too.'Ītkinson has said that she began to write Life After Life after becoming intrigued by 'one of the most potent and familiar' of all 'What if?' scenarios: 'What would have happened if Hitler had been prevented from coming to power?'ĭoubleday would not comment on whether Teddy, too, will live his life over again in the new novel. Kate Atkinson has tapped in to something truly wonderful in this book and whilst both this and 'A God in ruins' ultimately reveal a more shocking face of 20th century life than initially supposed in the two differing accounts of the Second World War from the perspective of both the bomber and the bombed, there seem enough potential in the. Ursula is asked if, given the opportunity, she would kill Hitler. 'What if we had a chance to do it again and again until we finally did get it right? Wouldn't that be wonderful?' Teddy asks her. In Atkinson's Costa award-winning novel, Ursula is given multiple chances at living her life – and dying her death.

'For all Teddy endures in battle, his greatest challenge will be to face living in a future he never expected to have,' said Doubleday, adding that the book was not a sequel to Life After Life but rather 'a companion volume, much of the narrative coinciding with the masterful timeline' of its predecessor.

A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson