The Ministry of Time

📘 About This Book

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.

📖 Summary

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley is a richly imaginative debut novel that blends multiple genres, creating a witty, sexy, and thrilling narrative that captured the literary world upon its publication in 2024. Spanning 368 pages, the book established itself as an award-winning sensation, earning recognition as a New York Times bestseller, a Hugo Award finalist for Best Novel, a Goodreads Choice Award winner for Science Fiction, a Good Morning America Book Club pick, and one of Barack Obama's favorite books of the summer. At its core, the novel introduces a fascinating premise that serves as a time travel romance, a spy thriller, and a unique workplace drama all at once. The story revolves around a newly established government ministry designed to manage and monitor expats from different eras of history. These historical figures are brought forward into the modern day as part of a secretive experimental project meant to test the viability and consequences of time travel. The protagonist, a civil servant working within this bureaucratic framework, is assigned to act as a bridge to the modern world for one of these historical expats. As they navigate the strange realities of the twenty-first century together, an electric and complicated dynamic develops between them. Blending high-stakes espionage elements with sharp workplace satire and deep emotional resonance, the relationship evolves from a mandatory assignment into something deeply personal and intense. The narrative explores what it means to be displaced in time, caught between the historical era that shaped a person and a modern reality that feels completely alien. Alongside the personal romance and cultural clashes, an underlying thriller plot keeps the tension high, hinting at sinister motives behind the ministry's grand experiment and raising questions about trust, government oversight, and the ethical boundaries of science. Bradley uses this inventive framework to deliver a story that is as intellectually stimulating as it is emotionally gripping, drawing readers into a world where past and present collide with unexpected consequences.

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