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  • Location: Berwick upon Tweed, Scotland

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

Why a Booktrail?

2000s: Harry August is on his deathbed. Again.

  • ISBN: 978-0356502571
  • Genre: Fantasy/Sci Fi

What you need to know before your trail

No matter what he does or the decisions Harry makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes.

Until now.

As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside. ‘I nearly missed you, Doctor August,’ she says. ‘I need to send a message.’

This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow.

Travel Guide

Travel between England and Scotland like Harry North

This book takes time and place to a new dimension. Harry is born in Berwick upon Tweed’s train station which is very close to the Scottish Border. He spends part of his life at Hulne Hall on the border. Later he studies in Edinburgh during his fourth life and comes across an asylum where he spent part of an earlier life…

Harry August is a “kalachakra”, a person who relives their life from birth to death multiple times. He is able to retain the memories and knowledge gathered during their previous lives though, which makes things very interesting.

England, Scotland, Germany, France….the locations are quick and fleeting, yet they give a flavour of the journey he is on overall. The First World War is destorying life as he knows it, and he even fights in Bretagne for a time, but vows not to get entangled in another war.

It’s not the locations which are important here, but the keen sense of how location, time, setting and place can be when you relive your life again and again.

Some interesting ideas in the book such as – time travel – Do you fall in love with the same person each time? Do you try to assassinate Hitler or save JFK? Would it work? Should you even try?

BookTrail Boarding Pass: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

Destination: Berwick upon Tweed, England, Scotland Author/guide: Claire North  Departure Time: Confused

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