Book Synopsis:
Polly and Frank are young and in love, a lifetime together before them. But one evening in 1980, as the Texas sun sets over their shoulders, the world is suddenly pulled apart by a deadly virus. Within months, Frank is dying. Polly can save him, but only if she agrees to a radical plan: to time travel to 1993 for a corporation who can fund his life-saving treatment. She can only go forward, she cannot go back. And she must leave everything she loves behind, including Frank.
All they have is the promise of a future together: they will find each other again in twelve years’ time, in Galveston, Texas, where the sea begins.
But when something goes wrong and Polly arrives late, Frank is nowhere to be found. Completely alone, Polly must navigate a terrifying new world to find him, and to discover if their love has endured.
My Review:
An ocean of minutes is a book that manages to combine quite a few genres. It’s little bit dystopian and sci fi but it’s mainly a beautiful, usual love story.
The world that has been created in this book is very intriguing and I enjoyed learning more about it. It’s quite similar in parts to the world that we know in that there is a definite class system in play with the poorer people trying to do anything to get by. The only way some people can afford the costly treatment for the flu epidemic that has affected the population is to sign up with a time traveling company for a job with them in the future, though once there they realise this isn’t the brilliant fix they though it was. It was quite chilling to realise how much control the company had on people and how hard they had to work to pay off their debt.
I loved Polly she seemed very clever and a hard worker, though at times was rather niave. Her attempts to navigate the strange future world was heatbreaking at times and I really felt for her and the predicament she finds herself in. Despite being classed as having a special skill the luxury she is promised doesn’t materislise and I could feel her upset and frustration as the bright future she hoped for fails to live up to her hopes.
The story is told in two parts. One follows Polly and her life in the future, 5 years further in the future then she hoped for which of course adds Futher complications as it makes finding Frank more difficult than she hoped. The other, told in a series of flash backs, focuses on Polly and Frank and the story of their life together. It is very poignant and beautiful to learn more about this, especially when it impacts the future. The two stories gradually come together and the ending was very uplifting and satisfying as it was great to see how far Polly had come.
Huge thanks to Ana at Quercus books for my copy of this book and for inviting me onto the blog tour. This is definitely a book I will be thinking about for some time.
About The Author:
Thea Lim’s novel AN OCEAN OF MINUTES is forthcoming in Summer 2018. She holds an MFA from the University of Houston. She has worked as a farmhand, a cocktail server, a souvlaki grill cook, a theatre usher, and an elevator courier; she is now a professor of Creative Writing. She grew up in Singapore and lives in Toronto with her family.
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