The Ministry of Time

　　最近新成立的某個神秘政府部門，正在執行一項計畫：從各個歷史時空中聚集一群「旅行者」，以研究時光旅行對人體和整個宇宙的影響。一位女公務人員接下了夢寐以求的高薪職位：與穿越時空的「旅行者」同住，幫助他適應21世紀的倫敦。她的個案編號1847是一位海軍少校高爾，理應在1845年左右就在一場失敗的北極探險中喪生，現在來到數百年後的世界。
 
　　一位19世紀的歷史人物身處21世紀的倫敦，和一個在他眼裡穿著過於暴露(大概就是裙子會露出小腿程度)的女子生活在一起，對於「大英帝國已不復存在」、「洗衣機」甚至是「串流影音」這些古怪新東西，實在是一點概念也沒有。不過在一天七根菸，以及強烈的探索渴望下，他也漸漸地找到自己的立身之道。在一年間的相處之下，兩人從尷尬的室友關係，逐漸發展出更深刻的感情…(文／博客來外文館)

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＂This summer’s hottest debut.＂ --Cosmopolitan - ＂Witty, sexy escapist fiction [that] packs a substantial punch...Fresh and thrilling.＂ --Los Angeles Times - ＂Electric...I loved every second.＂ --Emily Henry

＂Utterly winning...Imagine if The Time Traveler’s Wife had an affair with A Gentleman in Moscow...Readers, I envy you: There’s a smart, witty novel in your future.＂ --Ron Charles, The Washington Post

A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all: Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley.

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.

She is tasked with working as a ＂bridge＂ living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as ＂1847＂ or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as ＂washing machines,＂ ＂Spotify,＂ and ＂the collapse of the British Empire.＂ But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how--and whether she believes--what she does next can change the future.

An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks: What does it mean to defy history, when history is living in your house? Kaliane Bradley’s answer is a blazing, unforgettable testament to what we owe each other in a changing world.

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.