Wow. What an explosive title this book has. At least, that’s what I thought when I encountered it for the first time. I mean, seriously, ‘The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August’? What kind of book could bear such a title? Well, as it turns out, there couldn’t be a better title for this book, which, however you look at it, follows the first fifteen lives of Harry August’s life.
I think I should clarify.
Harry August is born (are you with me?), grows up (still here, right?), dies (well, obviously?), and then is born again as he starts from the zero point of his life (wait, what?). In other words, take the plot of ‘Groundhog Day,’ remove Bill Murray from it, stretch it over entire lifetimes instead of limiting it to one day, completely erase the script, and start from scratch, and maybe you’ll start understanding what I’m talking about. In other words, Harry August lives his life repeatedly in an endless loop.
And he’s not the only one in the world.
As he approaches the end of his 11th life cycle, once again on his dying bed, a young child stands by his hospital bed and delivers a message from the future, a message passed from child to an old man so he can pass it backward in time when he returns to his childhood days. The world is approaching an end, the message says. That’s nothing new because the world is always approaching an end, but it’s doing so faster than it used to. Now, everything depends on him and his generation and their actions to prevent the impending destruction.
Wow, what a book.
I’d say it’s been a long time since I read a book that made me think like this, but that wouldn’t be accurate because just a few months ago, I read ‘The Girl with All the Gifts,’ which is entirely different in every possible way but also makes you activate those gray cells with the questions it raises during the read.
Harry August (as I’ll refer to the book from now on because, seriously, you don’t expect me to write its full name every time, do you?) provides a different and intriguing perspective on two concepts very dear to my heart – eternal life and time travel. Because that’s exactly what it is, even if not quite as we’ve been accustomed to perceiving these concepts. Harry’s consciousness lives on perpetually while his body repeatedly restarts from ground zero, posing existential and moral questions about his involvement in history while leveraging his early knowledge. Where does the boundary lie? How ethical is it for him to gamble on historical sporting events for his own personal gain? What are the ethical implications if he exploits his early familiarity with the love of his life to win her heart again as if he were a main character in a romantic comedy (did I hear you mention the film ‘About Time‘?)? What would the world look like if he intervened in Adolf Hitler’s life before he rose to power? How much impact does his actions even have on the world if, each time he dies, he is reborn, and all his actions from the previous life are reset? And how is a child supposed to behave if they’re aware of entire lives that haven’t yet occurred?
The entire story is told through Harry August’s eyes, giving freedom to his memories and leading the readers through the centuries of his life as they trail after him, attempting to keep pace while he jumps from one incarnation to another in a nonlinear fashion with the ease of a Scottish deerhound.
‘The First Fifteen Rounds of Harry August’ is the 15th(!) book by the British author Catherine Webb, the first she’s published under the pen name Claire North. If you missed the exclamation mark in the previous sentence, it’s probably because you didn’t know she published it at the age of 28. Even if we take into account that her first book was published when she was 14, the significance is still more than a book per year, and many writers can tell you how impressive that is (yes, George R.R. Martin, we’re looking at you).
And it’s even more impressive, considering how good this book is. Honestly, I’m the last person to praise a book if it doesn’t deserve it. Truth be told, I believe every literature critic would agree with me that it’s much easier and enjoyable to write a scathing review. Not this time. Harry August caught me unprepared and managed to captivate me with his extraordinary story, not just that, but especially with the unique way it’s narrated. North’s choice to unravel the story into fragments and tell it associatively is nothing short of brilliant, perfectly conveying how the hero’s mind, spanning centuries, grapples with memories.
In other words – an excellent modern fantasy.
Fifteen lifecycles and a consciousness facing death.
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August / Claire North / Redhook Books
