Kate Atkinson, Life After Life

Beatriz Domínguez García (Universidad de Huelva)

Ed. by Kerry Myler, Birmingham Newman University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 2013

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Life After Life

(2013), like much of Kate Atkinson’s fiction, is deeply engaged with the ways in which the history of women is unaccounted for in a world in which historical evidence ignores the domestic sphere.

Life After Life

marks Atkinson’s return to female protagonists and women’s place in history after her four Jackson Brodie novels (2004 to 2010). The novel has been highly celebrated and won the Costa Award in 2013; the subsequent paraquel,

A God in Ruins

(2015), was promoted on the strength of these praises. The novel has been critically analysed for its plot and technique and the influence of what Emma Parker has labelled Atkinson’s “trilogy”. This novel, though deeply involved with history and women, is not a family saga but rather the story of how decisions in life…

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2670 words

Citation: Domínguez García, Beatriz. "Life After Life". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 June 2021 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=38952, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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