The Ministry of Time

'An outrageously brilliant debut... This is already the best new book I will have read next year'ELEANOR CATTON, SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF BIRNAM WOOD'Hugely enjoyable: ingeniously constructed, beautifully written, and unexpectedly sexy. It is the rarest of creations: a boldly entertaining page-tuner that is also deeply, thoughtfully engaged with our past, present and future'JOANNA QUINN, SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE WHALEBONE THEATRE'Kaliane Bradley writes with the maximalist confidence of P. G. Wodehouse, but also with the page-turning pining of Sally Rooney. It's thought-provoking and horribly clever - but it also made me laugh out loud'ALICE WINN, SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF IN MEMORIAM'A fantastic debut: conceptually brilliant, really funny, genuinely moving, written in the most exquisite language and with a wonderful articulation of the knotty complexities of a mixed-race heritage'MARK HADDON, AUTHOR OF THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME'Sly and illusionless in its use of history, lovely in its sentences, warm - no, hotter than that - in its characterisation, devastating in its denouement. A weird, kind, clever, heartsick little time bomb of a book'FRANCIS SPUFFORD, AUTHOR OF GOLDEN HILLA BOY MEETS A GIRL. THE PAST MEETS THE FUTURE. A FINGER MEETS A TRIGGER. THE BEGINNING MEETS THE END. ENGLAND IS FOREVER; ENGLAND MUST FALL.There are several ways to tell a story.A civil servant starts working as a 'bridge' - a liaison, helpmeet and housemate - in an experimental project that brings expatriates from the past into the twenty-first century. This is a science-fiction story.In a London safehouse in the 2020s, a disorientated Victorian polar explorer chain smokes while listening to Spotify and learning about political correctness. This is a comedy.During a long, sultry summer - as the shadows around them grow long and dangerous - two people fall in love, against all odds. This is a romance.The Ministry of Time is a novel about Commander Graham Gore (R.N. c.1809-c.1847) and a woman known only as the bridge. As their relationship turns from the strictly professional into something more and uneasy truths begin to emerge, they are forced to face the reality of the project that brought them together.Can love triumph over the structures and histories that shape them?