I’m a sucker for the time travel motif. It probably stems from my childhood when I watched Back to the Future and grappled with the paradoxes of erasing your history (Michael J. Fox’s hand, anyone?) With this in mind, it’s no surprise that the bold text on the cover: Ministry of Time jumped out at me.

The time travel aspects of this story have unique constraints. People don’t go joy-riding throughout the timeline. Instead, historical figures are ripped out of their own time to satisfy the experimentation of British bureaucracy. The tale centres on a person who works as a liaison, a bridge, acclimatizing these figures to twenty-first century England.

Kaliane Bradley’s masterful use of metaphor is evident on almost every page. Here are a few random examples to give you a taste:

In the distance, he hears the boom of cannon fire. Three in a row, like a sneeze. (1)

She grimaced and bunched her hands into fists, so the knuckles bulged like marbles. (156).

Since our conversation about Quentin, she’d taken me under her armored wing. It was eye-opening. I craved her way of seeming so steel-plated that it left no obvious vulnerability. (184).

Seriously, this is a high-school English student’s essay writing dream. But it’s highly effective. Bradley’s pacing, set in such vivid prose, makes the pages fly by (a sort of time travel in itself).

Pick up this book and lose yourself for a few hours. It’s time well-spent.

Bradley, Kaliane. The Ministry of Time. New York: Avid Reader Press, 2024.