The Ministry of Time

The romantic, sci-fi, comedic, literary, genre-defying bestseller

‘The hit of the year’
Guardian

‘Addictive’
Independent

‘Crack this book open and you’ll see how time can disappear’
Financial Times

‘Readers, I envy you: There’s a smart, witty novel in your future’
Washington Post

A civil servant is offered a lucrative job in a mysterious new government ministry gathering ‘expats’ from across history to test whether time-travel is feasible.

Her role is to work as a ‘bridge’: living with, supporting and monitoring expat ‘1847’ – Commander Graham Gore, a former Victorian polar explorer. Gore, an adventurer by trade, soon adjusts to this bizarre new world of washing machines, feminism and Spotify; and during a long, sultry summer the pair move from awkwardness to friendship to something more.

But as the true shape of the project that brought them together begins to emerge, Gore and the bridge are forced to confront their past choices and imagined futures. Can love triumph over the histories that have shaped them? And how do you defy that history when it is living in your house?

A Barack Obama reading pick

Shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize
Shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction
Shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award
Shortlisted for the Climate Fiction Prize
Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction
Longlisted for the Jhalak Prize
Longlisted for a British Book Award

One of the 18 best novels of the year for the Sunday Times
A book of the year for the New York Times, Guardian, Independent, Evening Standard, Spectator, Red, NPR, Vanity Fair, People, Slate, Advocate, Sydney Morning Herald, Globe and Mail, Den of Geek, Good Housekeeping, Goodreads, NetGalley and Smithsonian Magazine