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An Ocean of Minutes

A Novel

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An Ocean of Minutes

Written by: Thea Lim
Narrated by: Lisa Rost-Welling
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About this listen

An unforgettable love story of two people who are at once mere weeks and many years apart, for fans of Station Eleven.

America is in the grip of a deadly flu pandemic. When Frank catches the virus, his girlfriend Polly will do whatever it takes to save him, even if it means risking everything. She agrees to a radical plan. Time travel has been invented; if she signs up for a one-way trip into the future to work as a bonded labourer, the company will pay for the life-saving treatment Frank needs. Polly promises to meet Frank again in Galveston, Texas, where she will arrive in 12 years.

But when Polly is re-routed an extra five years into the future, Frank is nowhere to be found. Alone in a changed and divided America, with no status and no money, Polly must navigate a terrifying new world to find Frank, to discover if he is alive, and to see if their love has endured.

An Ocean of Minutes is a gorgeous, devastating novel about courage, yearning, the cost of holding onto the past - and the price of letting it go.

©2018 Thea Lim (P)2018 Viking Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction Time Travel

What the critics say

“Amidst the breathtaking world Thea Lim has created in An Ocean of Minutes is a profound meditation on the inhumanity of class and the limits of love. It takes immense talent to render cruelty both accurately and with honest beauty - Lim has pulled it off. This is a story about the malleability of time, but at its core lives something timeless.” (Omar El Akkad, author of American War)

“The premise Lim sets up here allows for the most multifaceted examination of time’s value. Time is Polly and Frank’s shared past and the promise of a shared future.... The tragedy that the people we love don’t get to live forever is the subject of some of our oldest stories. And also, it seems, our stories of the future.” (The Globe and Mail)

“Lim has it all; she’s fearless, smart, and writes like a dream. This is a novel I’ve been waiting for...extraordinary.” (Junot Diaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and This Is How You Lose Her)

"Lim’s enthralling novel succeeds on every level: as a love story, an imaginative thriller, and a dystopian narrative." (Publishers Weekly)

Shortlisted for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize

Longlisted for the 2019 CBC Canada Reads

Longlisted for the 2019 Sunburst Award

All stars
Most relevant
Highly recommend for its world-building, character development, and beautiful writing. If it’s not too soon for a pandemic read, this lonely story might be just the thing. I’ve read it several times now: tidy but not happy.

Timely & Well-crafted

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The reader‘s voice was very monotoned and was boring the listen to
The story itself was just ok

Bad reader

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It explores time travel and plagues in an interesting way. I liked (but not loved it). The author focused on the effect of time travel on those left behind. The idea of meeting up in the future was very interesting.

Good story

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narrator very flat/monotone. Struggled to keep picking it up . story was easy to follow.

narrator

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maybe if I read the book myself it would be different but I find the audio to be more like closed caption TV being read. stories okay but predictable

didn't really care for it

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Well written and unique perspective on immigration, love, and a variety of other topics. I'm looking forward to what this author writes next.

one of my new favoirites

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I was initially hesitant on this book, given some of the Audible reviews. But I'm so glad I gave it a listen. Not only is the premise of the story very interesting, it's executed with so much realism that you can't help but be enthralled by it. It's an exciting story that also captures heart wrenching nostalgia. The novel flips back and forth between telling Polly and Franks back story, and Polly's struggles after she arrives. As you learn more about their relationship, you really start to empathize with the longing that Polly has for Frank.

I found the narrators performance to be understated, in a good way. The characters voices are always discernible, but there's no overacting to make it so.

Great story, a new favourite

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