The Ministry of Time: A Novel
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF SUMMER 2024 • A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • HUGO AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST NOVEL • WINNER OF THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD FOR SCIENCE FICTION • A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, VANITY FAIR, ESQUIRE, VOX, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, THE INDEPENDENT, PARADE, KIRKUS REVIEWS, AND MORE… “This summer’s hottest debut.” —Cosmopolitan • “Witty, sexy escapist fiction [that] packs a substantial punch...Fresh and thrilling.” —Los Angeles Times • “Electric...I loved every second.” —Emily Henry “Utterly winning...Imagine if The Time Traveler’s Wife had an affair with A Gentleman in Moscow...Readers, I envy you: There’s a smart, witty novel in your future.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all: Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley. In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on.
Work Information
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF SUMMER 2024 • A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • HUGO AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST NOVEL • WINNER OF THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD FOR SCIENCE FICTION • A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, VANITY FAIR, ESQUIRE, VOX, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, THE INDEPENDENT, PARADE, KIRKUS REVIEWS, AND MORE… “This summer’s hottest debut.” —Cosmopolitan • “Witty, sexy escapist fiction [that] packs a substantial punch...Fresh and thrilling.” —Los Angeles Times • “Electric...I loved every second.” —Emily Henry “Utterly winning...Imagine if The Time Traveler’s Wife had an affair with A Gentleman in Moscow...Readers, I envy you: There’s a smart, witty novel in your future.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all: Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley.
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF SUMMER 2024 • A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • HUGO AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST NOVEL • WINNER OF THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD FOR SCIENCE FICTION • A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, VANITY FAIR, ESQUIRE, VOX, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, THE INDEPENDENT, PARADE, KIRKUS REVIEWS, AND MORE… “This summer’s hottest debut.” —Cosmopolitan • “Witty, sexy escapist fiction [that] packs a substantial punch...Fresh and thrilling.” —Los Angeles Times • “Electric...I loved every second.” —Emily Henry “Utterly winning...Imagine if The Time Traveler’s Wife had an affair with A Gentleman in Moscow...Readers, I envy you: There’s a smart, witty novel in your future.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all: Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley. In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time. She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore...
Review Summaries
-
Reception is generally positive, with praise for the premise and the emotional stakes. Some readers want a tighter pace or a little more depth in places.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
- Published
- 2025-04-01
- Pages
- 368 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13.97 x 2.29 x 21.27 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781668045152
- ISBN-10
- 166804515X
- Price
- 3376 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Romance/Time Travel
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF SUMMER 2024 • A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • HUGO AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST NOVEL • WINNER OF THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD FOR SCIENCE FICTION • A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, VANITY FAIR , ESQUIRE , VOX , GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, THE INDEPENDENT , PARADE , KIRKUS REVIEWS , AND MORE… “This summer’s hottest debut.” — Cosmopolitan • “Witty, sexy escapist fiction [that] packs a substantial punch...Fresh and thrilling.” — Los Angeles Times • “Electric...I loved every second.” —Emily Henry “Utterly winning...Imagine if The Time Traveler’s Wife had an affair with A Gentleman in Moscow ...Readers, I envy you: There’s a smart, witty novel in your future.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all: Welcome to The Ministry of Time , the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley. In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time. She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,” “Spotify,” and “the collapse of the British Empire.” But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts. Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future. An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks: What does it mean to defy history, when history is living in your house? Kaliane Bradley’s answer is a blazing, unforgettable testament to what we owe each other in a changing world.
Kaliane Bradley is a British-Cambodian writer and editor based in London. Her short fiction has appeared in Somesuch Stories , The Willowherb Review , Electric Literature , Catapult , and Extra Teeth, among others. She was the winner of the 2022 Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Prize and the 2022 V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize.
Reviews
-
like the author said herself
this was a story for her close circle. - An uninteresting protagonist (she mostly just exists rather than drives the plot). - A baseless love story (though I’m glad it didn’t end well). - A random ending (somewhat foreshadowed, but far from adequately developed). - Unnecessary ideological messaging (perhaps understandable given the contemporary situation in Britain).
-
A LOT OF DENTS FOR A NEW PRODUCT!!
I bought the "new" yet its like this. Maybe other used ones look better than this.
-
Super fun book. You can’t stop reading it once you begin
-
Loved it! Großartige Idee, großartige Figuren, großartiger Spannungsbogen. Ein absolutes Highlight, bei dem ich bis zum Schluss mitfieberte, wie es wohl ausginge.
-
This book is on The Women's Prize for fiction long list now I notice and I'm not surprised, it is a great read.
-
The Ministry of Time combines time travel with Franklin's ill fated expedition to find the North West Passage. That description alone meant I was predestined to love this one, and it really is an absolute belter. What would the British government do if they had the ability to travel through time? Well, in The Ministry of Time, the first thing they do is grab a handful of people from history and drag them into our modern world in order to study the effect of time travel on the human body. Mindful of the potential dangers in changing history, they choose people who would have died anyway such as a plague victim, an army captain from the battle of the Somme, and Commander Graham Gore from the Franklin expedition. Each expat from history is assigned a bridge, a housemate who will help them acclimatise to our world. Gore's bridge is an unnamed women of dual heritage and she is our narrator. Each chapter in modern times alternates with a third party account of Gore's time in the Arctic. The relationship between Gore and his bridge as he navigates his new reality is charming - he is witty and absorbs much that is alien to him with good humour. His bridge tries to explain every baffling concept from smartphones to the collapse of the British Empire while simultaneously reporting on everything Gore does and says. "Upstairs, I heard a cautious woodwind polonaise strike up, waver and cease. A few moments later, his tread in the kitchen. The pigeons took off, their wings making a noise like swallowed laughter. ‘Did the Ministry provide the flute?’ he asked the back of my head. ‘Yes. I told them it might be grounding for you.’ ‘Oh. Thank you. You – knew I played the flute?’ ‘A couple of extant letters from you and referring to you mention it.’ ‘Did you read the letters that mentioned my mania for arson and my lurid history of backstreet goose-wrestling?’ I turned around and stared at him. ‘A joke,’ he supplied. ‘Ah. Are there going to be a lot of those?’ ‘It depends on how often you spring on me such statements as “I have read your personal letters”. May I join you?’" Light hearted banter aside, it soon becomes clear that the expats could be in danger, and no-one is quite sure what the ministry's true intentions are. It's a brilliant story with wonderful characters, not just Gore and his bridge, but the other expats and their bridges too. They are all people I would happily have spent more time with. Definitely one of my books of the year.
-
Some books grip you with their premise; others linger in your mind long after you turn the last page. The Ministry of Time does both. It’s a time-travel story unlike any I’ve read before—brimming with secrets, unexpected twists, and a love story that feels both grand and deeply intimate. At the heart of the novel is an unnamed protagonist who becomes a “bridge” for 19th-century naval officer Graham Gore (yes, that Graham Gore, from the Franklin expedition) as he tries to navigate 21st-century life. Watching Gore experience contemporary life through fresh eyes was both fascinating and surprisingly tender. The novel’s quieter moments—mundane routines, shared meals, hesitant conversations—are where Bradley’s writing truly shines. Beyond the intrigue, The Ministry of Time also delves into compelling discussions on race and perception. And then there’s the romance: slow-burning, bittersweet, and utterly consuming. The dual perspectives (especially Gore’s chapters) add depth, highlighting the contrast between past and present in a way that feels immersive rather than jarring. By the end, I was left with that rare, aching feeling—a mix of satisfaction and longing. This is a book that doesn’t just tell a story; it makes you feel it. Highly, highly recommend.