The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August by Claire North

 

Harry is a kalachakra, one of a few humans who are born with an ability.  Harry lives and dies a life like any others but when he dies, he goes back to the beginning and starts again.  He is always the product of a rape between the rich son of the manor and his mother a housemaid.  His mother dies in childbirth and the wealthy family he belongs to are appalled at the thought of raising him.  So he is raised by the gardener and his wife and learns about landscaping.

But with the help of the few other kalachakras, he always gets out of the rural landscape.  In his various lives he lives all over the world, practicing various professions and becoming richer.  There is a club for those of his sort and they help each other.  Harry is a subset of the kalachakras as he never forgets anything from life to life while others do.  That makes him the best candidate to stop another man who is trying to end the world in his attempt to know everything.

Victor is a friend of Harry's and then his enemy.  Vincent wants to build a machine more advanced than anything even imagined in physics that will contain all the answers of the world.  Unfortunately, it will destroy the world but Victor regards that as a fair price to pay.  Harry helps Victor for ten years but comes to realize that their work is wrong and then determines to stop him, no matter how many lives it takes.

Again and again, the two men chase each other through lifetimes.  Victor wipes out the clubs wherever he finds them as he isn't sure who is behind the attempts to stop him.  Harry works his way next to Victor and pretends that he has no idea of their past histories.  Who will win this ultimate battle?

This is Claire North's first major work.  She started writing at age fourteen and her name is a pseudonym for Catherine Webb.  She writes in the fantasy genre and recently has focused on retelling the Greek myths surrounding the Trojan War.  Her work introduces the reader to Harry and makes them ponder what they themselves would do with the ability to live life over and over.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.