The Ministry of Time
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, f
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A British civil servant takes a posting at a new ministry that has figured out one-way time travel. As a live-in bridge, she is assigned Commander Graham Gore, a Royal Navy officer pulled from the doomed 1845 Franklin expedition. The two share a London terrace house while the project tightens.
The Ministry of Time was written by Kaliane Bradley and published in 2024. It is Bradley's debut novel, blending time-travel sci-fi, historical fiction (centering on real 19th-century Arctic explorer Graham Gore), and contemporary romance.
Yes. The BBC and A24 have optioned The Ministry of Time. As of 2025, the project is in development.
The Ministry of Time is 432 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Ministry of Time takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
The Ministry of Time is a standalone novel by Kaliane Bradley, not part of a series.
The Ministry of Time is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.