若有機會你的人生能不斷反覆重來，直到結果滿意為止。
你，敢這麼選擇嗎？
這是我讀過本世紀最好看的小說！――《控制》作者吉莉安‧弗林（GillianFlynn）驚嘆推薦
★《紐約時報》二○一三年年度十大好書！
★美國GoodReads二○一三年讀者大票選，歷史小說類第一名！
★榮獲二○一三年英國科斯塔獎（CostaBookAwards）！
★入圍二○一三年女性小說獎（前身為英國柑橘文學獎）決選名單！
★二○一三年美國獨立書店年度選書！╱二○一四年英國獨立書店年度選書！
★入選Amazon人生必讀的100本書！╱二○一四年二月誠品外文選書！
★美國媒體評選的年度圖書中，《娥蘇拉的生生世世》是非美國小說中被提到最
多的一本。
故事發生在一九一○年，兩次世界大戰的喘息間，在冬季雪夜裡出生的一名叫娥蘇拉的小女嬰，尚未來得及呼吸就已夭折；同天晚上，她又出生了，這次她活了下來，但在往後的日子，只要她做錯選擇，人生便會「黑幕來了」，然後再次重來。因此她死了許許多多次，每一次都能再活過來。在生死無限重複的命運下，她發現自己竟擁有改變世界歷史的能力，而她能怎麼辦？她該出手嗎……
如果說你有第二次、第三次的機會，甚至是無數次的機會，可以讓人生重新來過，你會怎麼做呢？你會試圖改變世界，讓它免於走向無可避免的結果嗎？你敢嘗試這麼做嗎？
時光在架構中，事實上，所有一切都在流動中，沒有過去、沒有現在，只有目前這一刻。
本書藉著娥蘇拉一段段時間交錯，短暫又猛然抽離的生命歷程，呈現大量的二十世紀史實。作家一開始先布下女主角要行刺希特勒的場景。接下來鋪陳她斷斷續續、錯落平行的人生歷程，活在殘酷的兩次世界大戰背景，直到一九六○年代。每一段歷程，如同她每一次的死亡，都要經過迴轉重來。內容篇章大部分簡短，以年、月為標，引導讀者在時間上來回快速穿梭。而故事中幾個設定不變，讓讀者可以在故事渦流中不迷失。像是娥蘇拉的母親永遠是勢利又苛刻；姑母永遠是自由叛逆又給予女性庇護的人，如小說或電影中常有的人物設定。
《娥蘇拉的生生世世》帶領讀者跟隨書中主角娥蘇拉的腳步，看她如何在上個世紀動盪的年代中，一遍又一遍地活出自己的人生。作者藉由這個故事，讓我們見證即使是在最黑暗蕪穢的時刻，依舊有溫暖存在。透過她睿智深刻的敘事與描繪能力，帶我們重返那段歲月的風華與戰爭如何侵蝕人性，體現過去種種。這部小說探索了存在於人類最光明美善與最晦暗醜陋的兩種面向，堪稱是凱特‧亞金森筆下最富想像力、最飽含性靈的一部作品。
本書讓紐約暢銷小說《控制》作者吉莉安‧弗林（GillianFlynn）一連以令人發噱、慧黠、感動人心等十個形容詞狂讚，更說這是她讀過本世紀最好看的小說！
Amazon在推薦文中說：「本書以宏觀與微觀的手法寫成，作者精采的將世界大戰的糾葛，在娥蘇拉生活脈絡中展現出來，不僅達到微妙的平衡（並非每位作家都能如此成功），更展現她天生的文學功力。」本書同時入選美國獨立書商聯盟四月選書。
《娥蘇拉的生生世世》出版之後獲得極大好評，該書二○一三年四月在英美同步上市，空降各大暢銷書榜NO.1，被《紐約時報》、《時代週刊》、《華盛頓郵報》等二十多家媒體評選為「二○一三年度最佳圖書」，被美國亞馬遜編輯評選為「一百本人生必讀書」之一，也是英國二○一三年最暢銷的長篇小說。在英國榮獲科斯塔獎（CostaBookAwards），而在美國媒體評選的年度圖書中，是非美國小說中被提及最多的一本。
美國知名作家兼紐約州巴德學院文學客座教授FrancineProse書評：「英國小說中最讓我激賞的（包括亞金森的作品），就是他們會將精采文筆和戲劇化的張力做結合……他們多懂得編織情節，再一一破解。《娥蘇拉的生生世世》也一樣，亞金森會先給讀者一種感覺，逐頁閱讀時似乎擁有主宰故事的無限可能，選擇也多，但是隨著情節慢慢鋪陳，選擇後有得有失的內容開展後，就像生命般，其實最後還是只有一種選擇，走到最後，結束。」
【名家推薦】
東吳大學英文系教授謝瑤玲專文導讀
政治大學英文系講師伍軒宏專文導讀
作家‧評論家楊照
寶瓶文化社長朱亞君
新經典文化發行人葉美瑤齊聲推薦
【各界推薦文】
《娥蘇拉的生生世世》讓讀者見識到作家敘事的功力：小說家一落筆，主角生死由她定。——《紐約時報》書評，本書入選二○一三年紐約時報十大好書
《娥蘇拉的生生世世》讓讀者同時接觸到兩個世界，透過大時代的戰爭去平衡娥蘇拉的小時代家庭與朋友間生活。——亞馬遜網站二○一三年四月評選當月最佳書籍之書評
這一本是亞金森最具野心、也讀起來為之驚人的好書。文筆獨到之處，在於她的細膩的情感和體驗，昇華了人生的苦樂。——《觀察者（TheGuardian）雜誌》書評
亞金森的文字功力就在結合人性的溫暖、戲謔以及深沉來鋪陳人生的細膩。——《約克夏郵報（YorkshirePost）》
若有機會你的人生能不斷反覆重來，直到結果滿意為止……我能說，擁有這樣的人生豈不是太美妙了嗎？——GoodReads二○一三年讀者書評，獲該網站近兩百萬票選歷史小說得主
如果您喜愛《時空旅人之妻》，一定不能錯過這本書……跟著作家的架構布局，來場想像力的饗宴。——《週日鏡報（SundayMirror）》
近年來文學創作中最具創意、最有情節的小說之一。——《心理學雜誌》
讀起來輕鬆有趣、情節發展難以預測……結局令人瞠目。——《美麗佳人》
深入閱讀後，能在黑暗時代尋到一絲光明的小說。——《時尚美人（Glamour）雜誌》
驚人的開場……澎拜的結局。——《讀者文摘》
少有的一本小說，讓人一開始讀起來，就想翻到結局知道答案。——《泰晤士報》

What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?
On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.
Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can -- will she?
Darkly comic, startlingly poignant, and utterly original -- this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best.

What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?
On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.
Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can -- will she?
Darkly comic, startlingly poignant, and utterly original -- this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best.
One of the New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2013

Kate Atkinson’s dazzling Life After Life, one of the top selling adult books of 2014, explored the possibility of infinite chances, as Ursula Todd lived through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. In A God in Ruins, Atkinson turns her focus on Ursula’s beloved younger brother Teddy – would-be poet, RAF bomber pilot, husband and father – as he navigates the perils and progress of the 20th century. For all Teddy endures in battle, his greatest challenge will be to face living in a future he never expected to have.
A God in Ruins is a masterful companion to Life After Life, and will prove once again that Kate Atkinson is one of the finest novelists of our age. (

Cambridge is sweltering, during an unusually hot summer. To Jackson Brodie, formar police inspector turned private investigator, the world consists of one accounting sheet—Lost on the left, Found on the right—and the two never seem to balance.

Surrounded by death, intrigue and misfortune, his own life haunted by a family tragendy, Jackson attempts to unravel three disparate case histories and begins to realize that in spite of apparent diversity, everything is connected…

It is summer, it is the Edinburgh Festival. People queuing for a lunchtime show witness a road-rage incident—an incident which changes the lives of everyone involved. Jackson Brodie, ex-army, ex-police, ex-private detective, is also an innocent bystander—until he becomes a suspect.

With Case Histories, Kate Atkinson showed how brilliantly she could explore the crime genre and make it her own. In One Good Turn she takes her masterful plotting one step further. Like a set of Russian dolls each thread of the narrative reveals itself to be related to the last. Her Dickensian cast of characters are all looking for love or money and find it in surprising places. As ever with Atkinson what each one actually discovers is their true self.

Unputdownable and triumphant, One Good Turn is a sharply intelligent read that is also percipient, funny, and totally satisfying.

In this stunning collection, the best and brightest writers working today reimagine familiar stories from the greatest operas. Don Giovanni's ghost haunts a young boy, Fidelio meets Porgy and Bess and two hapless men stage a Mozartian love test. Long-lost loves enter the dating game and undying witches finally get grey hairs. Funny, macabre or irreverent, these stories are charming for any opera lover and a beguiling collection in their own right.

A brilliant new thriller from the author of 2005's breakout favorite, Case Histories, again featuring the irresistibly reluctant detective Jackson Brodie.
Two years after the events of Case Histories left him a retired millionaire, former detective Jackson Brodie has followed Julia, his occasional girlfriend and former client, to Edinburgh for its famous summer arts festival. But when he watches a man brutally attacked in a traffic jam--the apparent victim of an extreme case of road rage--a chain of events is set in motion that will pull the wife of an unscrupulous real estate tycoon, a timid but successful crime novelist, and a hardheaded female police detective into Jackson's orbit. Suddenly out of retirement, Brodie is once again in the midst of several mysteries that intersect in one giant and sinister scheme. A triumphant novel filled with wit and surprise and intrigue, ONE GOOD TURN will delight the many fans who applauded Kate Atkinson's first foray into thrillers, and it will win her even more devoted readers as she continues to blur the boundaries that divide literary and crime fiction.

Tracy Waterhouse leads a quiet, ordered life as a retired police detective-a life that takes a surprising turn when she encounters Kelly Cross, a habitual offender, dragging a young child through town. Both appear miserable and better off without each other-or so decides Tracy, in a snap decision that surprises herself as much as Kelly. Suddenly burdened with a small child, Tracy soon learns her parental inexperience is actually the least of her problems, as much larger ones loom for her and her young charge.
Meanwhile, Jackson Brodie, the beloved detective of novels such as Case Histories , is embarking on a different sort of rescue-that of an abused dog. Dog in tow, Jackson is about to learn, along with Tracy, that no good deed goes unpunished.

Jackson Brodie has relocated to a quiet seaside village in North Yorkshire, in the occasional company of his recalcitrant teenage son Nathan and ageing Labrador Dido, both at the discretion of his former partner Julia. It’s a picturesque setting, but there’s something darker lurking behind the scenes.
Jackson’s current job, gathering proof of an unfaithful husband for his suspicious wife, seems straightforward, but a chance encounter with a desperate man on a crumbling cliff leads him into a sinister network―and back into the path of his old friend Reggie. Old secrets and new lies intersect in this breathtaking new novel, both sharply funny and achingly sad, by one of the most dazzling and surprising writers at work today.

A stunning collection of thoughtful and highly readable short stories by Whitbread Award-winner, Kate Atkinson.
This is a daring, witty and provocative collection of twelve thematically-linked stories.
Inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses or, if you prefer, by Prada, Mary Poppins, Moschino and Barbie, these are stories of abandoned children and lonely adults, the seductiveness of our consumer society and fatalism in a post-Apocalyptic world.
From Charlene and Trudi, shopping madly while bombs explode outside, to gormless Eddie, a cataloguer of fish, and Meredith Zane who has discovered the secret to eternal life, each story brings to life a startling cast of characters. Linking the stories is an exploration of the infinite variety of ways in which people attempt to change the world around them, and themselves.

In 1940, eighteen-year old Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of espionage. Sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist sympathizers, she discovers the work to be by turns both tedious and terrifying. But after the war has ended, she presumes the events of those years have been relegated to the past forever.
Ten years later, now a radio producer at the BBC, Juliet is unexpectedly confronted by figures from her past. A different war is being fought now, on a different battleground, but Juliet finds herself once more under threat. A bill of reckoning is due, and she finally begins to realize that there is no action without consequence.

The stage is set. Marooned overnight by a snowstorm in a grand country house are a cast of characters and a setting that even Agatha Christie might recognize – a vicar, an Army major, a Dowager, a sleuth and his sidekick - except that the sleuth is Jackson Brodie, and the ‘sidekick’ is DC Reggie Chase.

The crumbling house - Burton Makepeace and its chatelaine the Dowager Lady Milton - suffered the loss of their last remaining painting of any value, a Turner, some years ago. The housekeeper, Sophie, who disappeared the same night, is suspected of stealing it.

Jackson, a reluctant hostage to the snowstorm, has been investigating the theft of another The Woman with a Weasel, a portrait, taken from the house of an elderly widow, on the morning she died. The suspect this time is the widow’s carer, Melanie. Is this a coincidence or is there a connection? And what secrets does The Woman with a Weasel hold? The puzzle is Jackson’s to solve. And let’s not forget that a convicted murderer is on the run on the moors around Burton Makepeace.

All the while, in a bid to make money, Burton Makepeace is determined to keep hosting a shambolic Murder Mystery that acts as a backdrop while the real drama is being played out in the house.

A brilliantly plotted, supremely entertaining, and utterly compulsive tour de force from a great writer at the height of her powers.

It’s the summer of 1951 and everyone is looking to put the dark days of the war behind them. The government’s The Festival of Britain, a celebration of the country’s creativity, grit and ingenuity.

For foreign correspondent turned war reporter Harry Flynn, it might offer the chance of redemption after a bad war in the Far East and a peace that is proving no easier to negotiate. [KS1] Having failed to resume his journalistic career, he reluctantly joins an oddball team of misfits, ne’er-do-wells and downright chancers helping to ready the Festival of Britain for launch.

Flynn’s attempts to resume some semblance of a romantic life also founder when one of his dates goes missing and he is deemed to be the last person to have seen her alive. Could he have been in some way responsible for her disappearance?

Little does he realize that the answer to some of his mounting problems may lie in the hands of a precocious, straight-talking thirteen-year-old called Veronica and a rather scruffy terrier who goes by the name of Mrs Betty …

Brilliantly plotted, witty and compelling, Our Noble Selves reaffirms Kate Atkinson’s place as one of the greatest chroniclers of our times.