The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

This book is a slow start, the snowball tipping off the side of a slope, picking up velocity so gradually you almost don't notice it, until it's the middle of the book and the snowball is now an avalanche racing toward the bottom of a mountain. At least, that's what reading it felt like to me. At the 48% mark, I was still going, yeah, it's readable, but it isn't *compelling*. But that's the last time I checked my progress in the book.

Overall, this is a fascinating conceit, a fascinating concept, played out fascinatingly. (And, no, this is far from the only novel featuring this idea, of someone leading a Groundhog's Day life, but this is one of the better uses of it, I think.) It's kind of a murder mystery and kind of a very weird show more friendship story and very much a thriller, all told out over centuries of time, multiple lives, and just one century of history.

Which isn't to say it's perfect. There are definitely flaws. But it's very gripping, and very satisfying.

Also, I need fic for this, stat. show less

Harry August, illegitimate son of local lordling and fostered by his grounds-keeper, is not like most people. He's born, lives his life and dies just like the rest of us but it's here that things begin to get weird. He's born again into the same life and recovers his memories of his past lives while still an infant. A few lives in Harry learns he's not the only one but even among his own kind he's something special. After a while most begin to forget things but not Harry, he remembers everything. ON the deathbed of his eleventh life Harry is visited by a young girl who warns him of catastrophe to come. The end of the world is coming and it's arriving quicker than it should and it's up to Harry to stop it.

This is quite a slow build of a show more story as we learn of some of the events in Harry's past lives and some of the people who come to matter in this tale. It jumps around quite a bit both in time and also within Harry's lives but this is handled extremely well by the author and I was never confused as to where I was within the narrative. While the first half of the book explores the concept of multiple lifetimes and its effects on the titular character the second becomes much more of a suspenseful thriller until the inevitable and overly foreshadowed conclusion. This ending is the only slight letdown of the book in an otherwise excellent read. Looking forward to trying out more from this author whether it be in this guise or her real name of Catherine Webb. show less

Harry August, born in northern England in 1919 dies an old man only to be born again, in the precisely same time and place and circumstances, the full memories of his former life returning as his infant brain develops. And this happens again, and again, and again. But the events of his life are not set; he can use the knowledge and education and skills he has accumulated to advance himself and move on more quickly from the same humble beginnings, and he discovers that he is not alone. While rare, there are other individuals who in the same circular way - “ouroborans” - who often store knowledge and look to help those recently returned to youth. As his lives progress Harry becomes aware that something in the future is amiss, show more something that will lead to the end of the world and is getting closer with each incarnation.


It’s been awhile since I’ve been gripped so much by a book. It took hold of me from the start, a fine mix of a wit, humour, tense plotting, great characterisation, excellent writing and a superb central idea explored fully.


As do all very good books, this works on several levels. As the literary thriller with a twist it is on its face, as a philosophical discussion of the enduring momentum of events compared to mayfly flicker of individual lives, perhaps as an exploration of the stages each of us goes through in our normal span of life.


Of course, I have to address this book’s similar concept to [a:Kate Atkinson|10015|Kate Atkinson|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1363801830p2/10015.jpg]Kate Atkinson’s [b:Life After Life|15790842|Life After Life|Kate Atkinson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358173808s/15790842.jpg|21443207]Life After Life - both published very close together in early 2014. Yes, Claire North’s prose is not as good as Atkinson’s (hardly a criticism as the multi-award winning Atkinson has been in the game for a lot longer and is one hell of a writer). What is truly worth pointing out is how, from such a similar central idea (even happening to be set across a fairly similar historical stage) each writer has woven such an utterly distinct tapestry. Both books are literary, by turns funny and sobering, gripping and thoughtful and deep, but quite, quite different.


Sure, Harry August is not without flaws - there is the occasional clumsiness to the writing (massively overwhelmed by some very good writing and truly breathtaking plotting) and a the odd time where I had to actively suspend disbelief to do with the accelerating pace of technological advancement - but the sheer joy and wit and humanity and unashamed cleverness of this novel means anything less than five stars would be churlish. show less

Thank you reading challenge! "Claire North's" book has been popping up as a recommended reading for me for nearly half a decade, yet the similarities between the jacket description and the plot of Ken Grimwood's [b:Replay|341735|Replay|Ken Grimwood|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1441156728l/341735._SY75_.jpg|1804797] put me off from reading what seemed a highly hyped knock-off. With my local bookstore's summer reading challenge, though, I decided to check it out from the library to use as an option for one of the squares. While I ended up not using it for that purpose, having the copy lying around was the final incentive I needed to read it.

And I'm so glad I did, as it proved to be far better than show more the derivative work I was expecting. North's novel takes the premise of a person reliving their lives that Grimwood devised and takes it in some fresh and interesting directions. The idea of a community of "kalachakrans" or "ouroborans" (as the people reliving their lives call themselves) is interesting enough; what makes it so especially fascinating was how they create an existence that allows for communication across time. It turns the central conflict of the novel into a chess match that is all the more suspenseful for the stakes involved. My only regret by the end of the book was the sense that the rich possibilities of North's world had only begun to be explored. In a literary world overflowing with sequels and series, this is one where a follow-up would be most welcome! show less

Sometimes, people get interviewed who have had long and incident-filled lives, and the interviewer asks "If you had your time again, would you do anything different?", and the answer is invariably "No, not a thing." Never believe a word of it. I know I would do things differently. It's a theme that has been infrequently visited in imaginative fiction; my collection only has four books of the sort - this, Ken Grimwood's Replay, Kate Atkinson's Life after Life and Jenny Erpenbeck's The End of Days (though I'm told that in the Erpenbeck, the idea is more of a literary device than the actual plot). Of those, it's years since I read Replay and the other two are still in the foothills of my To Be Read pile. No matter.

Harry August is an show more ouroboran, or a "kalachakra". After he dies, he is resurrected into his own body at the moment of his birth, but over the next three years he gradually retrieves all the memories of his previous life, so that he is able to take different decisions. More, Harry is a mnemonic - he has full recall of his past lives, rather than just remembering stuff at random, the way ordinary people like you and me ("linears" in the language of the book) do.

The kalachakra have a support mechanism, the Cronus Club, which exists to help support its members, especially after they've been around the loop a few times and find their accumulated knowledge of the future too much at odds with the things they are taught and expected to believe as children. This is especially useful for those born in the first part of the twentieth century, where science, technology and societal norms changed so much over the course of one lifetime. The Cronus Club has a more sinister objective - to prevent individual kalachakra from impacting the timeline too much. Imagine what someone with a knowledge of the science and technology of the 1960s, 70s or 80s could do with that knowledge in the 1920s or 30s. Of course, this is exactly what happens...

This is perhaps the major divergence between this book and Grimwood's Replay. In Grimwood's book, we follow the protagonist through their life, finding that they cannot make major changes to the timeline even if their own lives vary a lot. Grimwood's protagonist only ever finds a handful of fellow ouroborans, and at the climax of that book a baton is handed on to a new individual. The focus is on the personal story. But Harry August, who has similar experiences, is part of a bigger picture; the span of Claire North's story is greater, there is more at stake and the Cronus Club is the secret society to end all secret societies!

North adds to the idea, with some speculation as to what is actually happening to the kalachakra; there is no "Tell me, Professor..." info-dump, but a lot of hints are dropped as to the nature of the universe and the phenomenon the kalachakra are experiencing. The 'many worlds' interpretation of quantum physics is hinted at. Generally, situations and consequences are well thought out. Harry moves through the twentieth century world, being careful to avoid some of the more obvious traps. The writing is rich and the characters, I felt, quite well drawn, though Harry does have a habit of launching off into digressions to illustrate some point or other. And there is a long section on the last kalachakra to try to change the world, and what became of them which could have done with a little more tightening up. But equally there were laugh-out-loud moments and some ingenious twisting of the history we know. I found this a compelling read that engaged me on so many levels. Recommended. show less

Harry was born. He lived a long life. He died. He was born (again). He lived… Wait, what? Once again he is Harry August and it’s 1919 (again). And yet he remembers everything. It’s enough to drive you mad. Enough to force you to become a suicidal prodigy. Okay. He was born (again). But this time someone from the Cronus Club stepped in before he went mad and informed him that he was indeed on his third time around. That’s just the lot for a kalachakra. They are rare and Harry is the rarest of all, a kalachakra with a perfect memory of everything from his previous lives. But is that a blessing or a curse? In his next few hundred years, suitably divided into lives of average length, Harry learns a thing or two. Mostly he learns show more that it’s best if he and his kind don’t take too much advantage of their advance knowledge of events in their own lives. Because that can lead to unforeseen consequences for those who come after you. Consequences which have a tendency to expand dramatically in future generations. Best to play it cool, because if you really make a mess of things, the other kalachakra may have to end you, and not just in this life. They’ll hunt you down before you are even conceived in the next life. And, let me tell you, that really does end you.

I’ve probably mangled a bit of that setup above. The remarkable thing is that Claire North absolutely handles the introduction of her scenario with the grace and efficiency of a master craftsperson. Yet this is her first novel. Well, her first in this incarnation. As it happens, “Claire North” is the second pseudonym of Catherine Webb, so this is effectively the beginning of her third career as a novelist. Which might explain how it is she seems to understand Harry and his predicament so well. Her writing is brisk and lively and as intricate as required for such high-concept thrillers. But it’s also warmly sympathetic to her characters. It’s a joy to read writing this accomplished.

Perhaps the contrast between “linears” and those who live cyclical lives is less acute than at first appears. Harry, as our prime example, lives fifteen lives in the course of this novel. But he does so in linear fashion. That is, although he goes back to the beginning after his demise in each life, he remembers continuously. So his personal identity, which is tied to his psychological continuity, never fragments or dissolves. Which makes him a bit linear after all. But that might be merely one of the constraints you are forced to accept in your scenario when your goal is to write a novel.

It’s a fascinating read which eventually coalesces into an exciting thriller in a chase across generations. I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I did.

Recommended. show less

Harry is born, lives his life and dies. Then he is born again, remembers his previous life, and goes mad and ultimately kills himself. Then he is born again a third time with two lifetime's worth of memories. Every time he is reborn it is at the same period in time in a largely identical timeline. It's possible, with some effort, to change things, but rarely for the best and when he dies it all resets again. The Chronos Club, consisting of people like him, frowns on that sort of behaviour. It's possible to pass messages up and down the timeline, and nobody want to mess with the lives of future members. But somebody is doing something big, something subtle and dangerous, gradually accelerating the end of the world in life after life. show more Harry may know who. Harry, filled with the ennui and helplessness of repetitive immortality, can track him down, but if he does will he stop the changes, or help them?

A terrific concept, well executed, that thinks through the consequences of its premise and creates a fully realised and fleshed out character to share them with us. Brilliantly written, evocative, scary, and a strange, intense and odd look at life and mortality and futility and friendship. Excellent. show less