This novel won several awards, including Winner for Readers’ Favorite Science Fiction and the Goodreads Choice Award for Science Fiction, along with a host of other nominations. It’s nominally science fiction by way of time travel, and there’s some spy mystery once the ministry’s true motivations come to light, but mostly this is a literary fish-out-of-water story about British identity. Also, there’s a little romance.
I really enjoy the slow pace of this book, the slice of life of watching a British man from the Victorian era come to terms with modern ideals and tech. The literary voice is languorous, complete with long sentences filled with metaphors, which I think helps the reader connect to Gore even more, despite the POV being a modern young woman. Gore comes across as charming and authentic, as well as a bit sad for the loss of the Britain he knew.
What also works so well in this novel is the POVs biracial identity, half British and half Cambodian. Our translator grew up with in Britain with a mom who struggled to speak English, and her mother’s direct experience with the Cambodian genocide often percolates through her daily life. She faces many racist remarks, fetishization of her exoticness, while also passing as white. She both feels a kinship and is not entirely comfortable around the only other minority in the ministry, a boisterous black woman. The themes of identity and colonialism are authentically explored here.
Once the plot truly kicks in, and the ministry goes full corporate, and time travel goes a little timey-wimey, so the story almost feels like a different book. There are too many different things the story tries to do, and all the components don’t quite gel together. That being said, this is a smart book for those who enjoy literary fiction with an appreciation for history, that focuses on characters and emotion.
Recommended for Anglophiles who love the Victorian era.
