The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
The Ministry of Time (Avid Reader Press) has been named one of the most-anticipated debuts this spring. It garnered numerous glowing reviews from major publications, sold adaptation rights to A24 and BBC pre-publication, and has been named Good Morning America’s May book club pick. Bestselling romance author, Emily Henry, calls it “electric, charming, whimsical, and strange as its ripped-from-history cast. (Extremely.) I loved every second I spent wrapped up in Kaliane Bradley’s stunning prose, the moments that made me laugh and those that made my heart ache. This is a book that surprises as much as it delights…”
She’s got it right — this engaging, quirky, hilarious and compulsively readable novel will tug at your heartstrings in the best way. All at once a dynamic workplace story, time travel drama and one-of-a-kind romance, The Ministry of Time is perfect for fans of Paper Girls, The Terror and The Umbrella Academy.
Past Meets Present in Time Travel Romance
In the not-so-distant future, a government ministry has mastered the art of time travel — or is, at least attempting to perfect the science. Their trial run has led them to pull a handful of people who will not be missed out of history and into the present. Among them is Commander Graham Gore, one of the explorers who would have died on the 1845 arctic Franklin Expedition.
But adjusting to the modern world is not easy for Gore, or his fellow “expats” — other people rescued from various points in history — and they require a bridge into the present. Graham Gore’s “bridge”, he is shocked to learn, is a British Cambodian woman. She shows her calves, curses, drinks and smokes, but she is responsible for bringing Gore up to speed on modern life, so the pair must get along.
What starts as a hilarious romp — as the 19th-century explorer learns to ride a bike, type his questions into Google, and share a flat with a woman — soon turns serious as the bridge navigates the difficulty of revealing other modern realities. How does she delicately tell Gore about the death of his entire crew, the collapse of the British Empire, the Holocaust, or even her own race and culture?
Migration, Morality and Intimacy
The bridge, who has studied all possible personal letters, histories and accounts of Commander Graham Gore years before his arrival in her timeline, is confronted with the fact that, in coming face to face with Gore, she doesn’t know him at all. In turn, Gore must trust the bridge’s accounts of her own time period, as they each resign to the understanding that they can never truly know everything about one another.
Both Gore and the bridge grapple with their immigrant experiences — whether they traveled across time or space, voluntarily or not — and struggle to cope with the loss, grief and loneliness that comes with leaving something behind for the sake of a future. But the bonds they form with the other expats are a way to reach across the divide and find something in common: the fact that they are all uniquely different.
Soon to be Adapted by A24 and BBC
The Ministry of Time explores identity, morality, migration, cultural relativity and the logistics of time travel as two unlikely roommates find common ground and intimacy in the most unexpected ways — all while unraveling a dangerous Ministry conspiracy. The novel prompts readers to consider their place in time, how they can change the future while reckoning with the past, and what they’d be willing to sacrifice to make the world better. Not to mention, readers will be begging for someone to invent time travel, so they can jump to a near-future where they can watch The Ministry of Time on their screens.
About Kaliane Bradley:
Kaliane Bradley is a British Cambodian writer and editor based in London. Her short fiction has appeared in Somesuch Stories, The Willowherb Review, Electric Literature, Catapult, and Extra Teeth, among others. She was the winner of the 2022 Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Prize and the 2022 V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize. (Photo Credit: Robin Christian)
