"The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August" Is Mesmerizing...

What would you do if you had to live your life over and over and over again? What if each time you lived your life over, you remember everything from your previous lives? What would you do different? Or the same?  This scenario is the basic plot of the novel The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (2014) by Claire North (a pseudonym of British author Catherine Webb). Think of this book as Groundhog Day on steroids.

Synopsis: "Harry August is on his deathbed. Again.

No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes.

Until now.

As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside. "I nearly missed you, Doctor August," she says. "I need to send a message."

This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow." (Book jacket)

The protagonist, Harry August, is one of a rare set of people who are unable to truly die: as soon as their body dies, their life starts over with the same parents, the same childhood, the same world - except this time they have a lifetime (or 15 lifetimes) of knowledge and experience to draw upon. As Harry dies for the 11th time, a little girl warns him about the impending end of the world...

Review: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is beautifully crafted and masterful: the author not only comes up with a fascinating concept that's very rarely seen in science fiction, but develops it and fleshes it out to such an extent that the book's universe seems quite believable. We get glimpses of immortals (or ouroborans, as they call themselves) and the many, many different ways they spend their endless lives. We get cautionary tales of what can happen if somebody tries introducing advanced technology centuries before its time. (Alternate history fans will love that part.) We see the best and the worst that strange immortality brings out in regular people - and how they deal with it.

One of the best things about this book is the witty internal narrative by the protagonist, with small hilarious quips and observations. There are moments which are laugh out loud funny. Consider, for example, "if Pietrok-111 was a one-horse town, Pietrok-112 was the glue factory where that horse went to die."

Another notable feature is the extensive research by the author. She successfully nails not only the historical context throughout the 20th century, but does so with perfect cultural accuracy of England, USSR, China, and the United States. Furthermore, each locale and time period reflects the proper dialect, scientific discovery, and emotional awareness of its time. Simply brilliant. 

Wrap all this up with a cleverly woven story in a unique setting of time repetition. Considering I am not usually a fan of books that jump around in time, this high praise from me is quite a testament to the author's brilliancy. The surprise ending almost made me want to go back to the beginning and read it all over again to see what I missed.

My only complaint about the book is that someone needs to really proofread it. There are a number of typographical errors which kind of ticks me off, but in no way detracts from the enjoyment of the novel.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars