The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

Editor and Engagement Manager Sophia Dramm shares:

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

The Ministry of Time has gotten a lot of buzz since it published last year. It was a book-of-the-month selection at Barnes & Noble, where I work as a bookseller, and was recently nominated for the Hugo Award, along with winning several other awards. I decided it was time to check it out.

Here’s the premise: In the near future, the British government has figured out how to time-travel. To test the fabric of space-time, the government brings into the present several people from different times in the past. Included is Graham Gore, a Victorian-era explorer who died in 1847 at 37 years old during a failed Arctic expedition. At least he was supposed to die in 1847—in our story, he’s brought to the present before that occurs.

Graham is paired with a person from the present (our narrator) to help him settle into the modern world. What follows is a story with an intersection of genres: science fiction, history, romance, and even spy thriller. I saw the book as an exploration of what people from the past would think of the modern world. How would a Victorian-era man react to toilets and comprehend the collapse of the British empire?

Most interestingly, Graham Gore was a real person and he died on a real expedition (Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition of 1845). The author pulled from Graham’s letters and other people’s accounts of him to shape his fictional character. The result? Graham’s character is so charming.

As I tell Barnes & Noble customers who pick up The Ministry of Time—great choice, and prepare to fall in love with Graham!