The Ministry of Time

Gabi's Review

Observer best debut fiction 2024.

In her gripping, fact-filled debut novel, Kaliane Bradley creates a genre mash-up of sci-fi, romance and historical fiction. The Ministry of Time is exactly that: the British Dept that experiments with extracting and rehabilitating people from the past to study the effects of time travel.

The protagonist, a civil servant, gets a lucrative promotion working as a bridge, offering these incarnate expats a period of one year's cohabitation to acclimatise them to the twentieth century. Her first expat is Lt. Graham Gore, a Victorian-era naval officer and polar explorer who happens to be a most beguiling charge. Through meticulous research and extrapolation, the author brings the charming and charismatic Commander Gore to life, setting him on a journey that explores the modern world from a Victorian perspective with much hilarity.

As the plot navigates between past and present, the reader is drawn into a world of intrigue and romance, creating a meaningful and nuanced perspective on the complexities of modern-day relationships. This taut and artfully written novel, inspired by a sole daguerreotype and the author's passion for polar explorers, proves to be a highly pleasurable read. Anne doesn't like fantasy and I am no fan of romance, however we both really enjoyed this unique book, and looking at the publishers' reviews below, we appear to be in good company.

Publishers Reviews

'Outrageously brilliant' - ELEANOR CATTON

'Make room on your bookshelves for a new classic' - MAX PORTER

With its ingenious concept and gripping plot, The Ministry of Time is the most fun you could possibly ever have while engaging so seriously with history and our place in it' - DIANA REID

'Funny, moving, original, intelligent, beautifully written and with a thunderous plot' - NATHAN FILER

'As electric, charming, whimsical and strange as its ripped-from-history cast' - EMILY HENRY

'Within the first couple of pages I was gripped' - KATE MOSSE

In the near future, a disaffected civil servant is offered a lucrative job in a mysterious new government ministry gathering 'expats' from across history to test the limits of time-travel.

Her role is to work as a 'bridge': living with, assisting and monitoring the expat known as '1847' - Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin's doomed expedition to the Arctic, so he's a little disoriented to find himself alive and surrounded by outlandish concepts such as 'washing machine', 'Spotify' and 'the collapse of the British Empire'. With an appetite for discovery and a seven-a-day cigarette habit, he soon adjusts; and during a long, sultry summer he and his bridge move from awkwardness to genuine 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 structures and histories that have shaped them? And how do you defy history when history is living in your house?