The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

An unnamed protagonist is a civil servant in London who has mysteriously been offered a job that she wasn't actually allowed to know about until she was hired. A recently established government agency is struggling to establish whether time travel is a blessing more than it is a burden. 1847, also known as Commander Graham Gore, has been plucked right out of his place in history and brought into the 21st Century. Our Protag is tasked with being his 'bridge' between the past (the only society he's ever known) and the present. The mind-bending consequences of which no one could predict.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. It had moments that felt irrelevant - added without purpose. Despite this, it was a really interesting read, without being particularly entertaining. I know that statement feels at odds, but that's how I felt about this book. I enjoyed the character of Commander Gore and Margaret very much. And Kaliane Bradley writes with a lot of humor and unexpected depth. Poetic even, at times. I really enjoyed that. However, the plot itself was slow and felt disjointed. I often thought to myself, "I don't understand where this is going or why it matters." Upon finishing the book, I think there were two plot lines here that just weren't intertwined enough to make this novel come full circle. The actual Ministry and mystery of time travel felt very secondary to all the time spent developing relationships between the expats and the bridges. The last chapter of the book is when it finally started to come together, but it was only a start. I would have loved a deeper dive and for that plot line to have seen its way through in more prominent ways. If this had been condensed to a short story, I think it would have packed a much bigger punch. Regardless, it is a really unique and well-written novel.

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