'𝜤’𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚, 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒉.'

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This is the first Emily St. John Mandel book I have read. I understand that each of her books bleed into one another and this one has whetted my appetite to try more. I'm interested to see how she weaves these across stories.

I don't want to give too much away as this speculative fiction plot gently unravels across time and space. To do so wouldn't necessarily spoil the message or the themes but I think it would take away plenty of what makes this book interesting.

The characters felt bland to me. For a short book, even taking a day away from reading would have me casting my mind back for some of the lesser characters. I could probably wangle some theory about there being a point to that - but it did take away some enjoyment. No one really expressed anything particularly passionately.

But there are lots of meaty subjects to consider and mull over - time and space, colonising other planets, pandemics obviously. And big life questions. What do we need to live? What does it mean to 'live'? 

I've seen these kinds of questions posed in better novels, but I think this one still worth the read.