Life After Life

“What if we had a chance to do it again and again, until we finally got it right? Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”

Part One: Early Lives

The novel opens with Ursula Todd’s birth on a snowy night in 1910. In one version, she dies immediately, suffocated by the umbilical cord. In another, a doctor arrives in time to save her. This pattern of alternate lives continues, with Ursula experiencing multiple deaths and rebirths, each time retaining a faint sense of déjà vu.

As a child, Ursula drowns at the beach, but in another life, she is rescued. She falls from a window, but in another timeline, she is caught. These near-death experiences shape her subconscious, making her wary of danger before it happens. Her family—her parents Sylvie and Hugh, her siblings Maurice, Pamela, Teddy, and Jimmy—remain central, though their fates shift in each iteration.

Part Two: Coming of Age

Ursula grows up in Fox Corner, England, navigating adolescence with an eerie awareness of past mistakes. In one life, she is assaulted by a friend’s brother, leading to an unwanted pregnancy and a traumatic abortion. In another, she avoids the encounter entirely. The Spanish flu pandemic claims her life in one timeline, while in another, she survives.

As World War II looms, Ursula’s lives diverge dramatically. In one, she moves to Germany, marries a Nazi officer, and witnesses the horrors of the regime. In another, she stays in England, working in the War Office and aiding civilians during the Blitz. Her brother Teddy’s fate also varies—sometimes he dies as an RAF pilot, other times he survives.

Part Three: The War and Beyond

One of Ursula’s most significant lives involves her repeated attempts to assassinate Hitler in 1930s Germany. Each attempt fails, but she persists, driven by an instinctive need to alter history. In another life, she becomes a mother, only to lose her child in an air raid—a tragedy that haunts her across lifetimes.

By the novel’s end, Ursula’s many lives converge into a sense of purpose. In her final iteration, she saves Teddy from dying in the war, ensuring a happier outcome for her family. The book closes with a sense of cyclical renewal, suggesting that life—and death—are part of an endless, mutable journey.

Key Ideas

• The cyclical nature of life and the possibility of redemption through repeated chances.
• The impact of small choices on the course of history and personal destiny.
• The fragility of human life amid war, disease, and societal upheaval.
• The persistence of memory and intuition across alternate realities.
• The blurred line between fate and free will.

Notable Adaptations