The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (2024)

Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time is one of the freshest, most human takes on time travel in years — a novel that blends sci-fi, romance, and political satire into something both funny and quietly heartbreaking.

The story follows a British-Cambodian civil servant hired by the government’s new “Ministry of Time,” a covert organization that pulls people from the past moments before their deaths and brings them into the present. Her task: help acclimate Commander Graham Gore, a real 19th-century Arctic explorer saved from near-certain death, to modern life. What begins as a bureaucratic assignment slowly turns into a tender, uneasy relationship, shadowed by secrets, surveillance, and the weight of history itself.

Bradley’s writing is sharp and witty — filled with deadpan humor, cultural missteps, and warm awkwardness — yet beneath it runs a vein of melancholy. The novel explores colonialism, belonging, and identity without preaching, showing how both characters are displaced in time and culture. Their growing connection feels intimate but never idealized, a fragile bridge between centuries.

While some may wish for deeper world-building around the Ministry itself, Bradley wisely keeps the focus on her characters’ emotional and moral dilemmas. The result is less a sci-fi thriller and more a philosophical romance, where the real mystery is what it means to live ethically in someone else’s future.

Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.5/5) — A witty, thought-provoking, and unexpectedly moving debut that proves time travel is as much about the heart as it is about history.