In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she'll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering "expats" from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible--for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.
[Bradley's] utterly winning book is a result of violating not so much the laws of physics as the boundaries of genre ... Gradually, as the novel’s carbonated humor fizzes away, sharper elements protrude ... Admittedly, Bradley is not a tidy writer. This plot eventually starts to shake like a Radio Flyer wagon traveling at DeLorean speeds. But by then nothing matters but the fate of this asynchronous couple brought together across cultures and eras.
For a book that could also be easily described as witty, sexy escapist fiction, The Ministry of Time packs a substantial punch ... Kaliane Bradley proves that it’s possible to address imperialism, the scourge of bureaucracy, cross-cultural conflict and the paranoia inherent in a surveillance state through her utterly entertaining novel ... An edgy, playful and provocative book that’s likely to be the most thought-provoking romance novel of the summer.
A novel where things happen, lots of them, and all of them are exciting to read about and interesting to think about ... While Bradley’s writing can veer towards the glib, go with it: give in to the tide of this book, and let it pull you along. It’s very smart; it’s very silly; and the obvious fun never obscures completely the sheer, gorgeous, wild stretch of her ideas.
