The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

Given the title I thought I would really enjoy this book, and I was correct.  I was immediately gripped by the story and the concept and whizzed through the 400 odd pages.  Despite the quite complex nature of the plot and the various theoretical debates, I found it easy to read and completely absorbing.

As the title suggests, the novel centres on a man called Harry August who, when he dies, is reborn at exactly the same time and in exactly the same place and circumstances.  As he grows up he starts to remember his previous lives, but none of those relationships or interactions exist or have happened yet in his current life.  He effectively lives for centuries, but only ever within the years of his lifespan.

Whilst the story did remind me of Kate Atkinson’s fantastic Life After Life, I found it to also be completely different from it and almost as enjoyable.

The novel deals with the inevitable and tricky time-travel dilemma very well and in a very upfront matter-of-fact way.  The entire story is told by Harry.  He is basically writing an autobiography and through it he speaks directly to the reader, explaining what he is and how it works, to the best of his knowledge.  Although I do not understand all the scientific principles discussed, I did enjoy Harry’s debates with a student when, in his sixth life, he became a physics professor at Cambridge.

In terms of genre it would probably be categorised as sci-fi fantasy, however it is grounded in the real world and could be deemed a dramatic adventure with fantastical elements.  One of the factors I enjoyed most was reading about Harry’s interactions with and avoidance of the span of twentieth century historical events around the world.  Living his life over and over again gave Harry foresight and advanced warning, but also the opportunity to explore, study and discover different countries, cultures, belief systems and academic subjects.

The story has a good blend of action, explanation, theory and contemplation.  Despite some of the more lengthy sections of Harry pondering and theorising, I was never bored and felt it moved at a good pace.  It also managed to keep suspense and tension at various points despite knowing that if Harry died he would just be reborn again.  The story is not told in a linear fashion, it does not take each life in chronological order, but rather jumps between events in lives, sometimes comparing them and spending longer describing some lives than others.  We therefore learn who Harry is now, by discovering all his past selves jumbled together, and in this way we can begin to understand his beliefs and purpose.

Being grounded in real historical events and technology made all the concepts, characters and actions believable.  It was not difficult to comprehend or imagine these things happening, and various characters’ reactions, decisions and plots to exploit the situation were extremely credible and depressingly in line with the nature of humankind.  I also thought the impact of re-living the same life again and again on Harry’s personality and soul was realistically considered and portrayed.

The funny thing about this book is how much I enjoyed it despite feeling that Harry has no actual defining personality.  We get to know him and certain other characters really well, and yet they still seem lacking in substance.  Whether this was a conscious and very clever decision by the author as being a consequence of living so many times, or a lack of real character development I’m not sure, but it is impressive that the story is still enjoyable.