Time’s Arrow – Martin Amis

Shortlisted for the Book Prize (1991)

The novel is known for its unique structure, telling the life story of a Nazi war criminal, Dr. Tod T. Friendly (formerly Odilo Unverdorben), in reverse chronological order, from death to birth, exploring themes of mortality, guilt, and the Holocaust through this disorienting narrative. 

In this icy, knife’s-edge story of a life that progresses backward through time, unfolding into one of the darkest episodes of the 20th century, Amis, finds a chillingly original approach to the Holocaust in fiction.

“The narrative moves with irresistible momentum…. [Amis is] a daring, exacting writer willing to defy the odds in pursuit of his art.” –Newsday

Tod. T. Friendly is living his life in reverse. Doctor Friendly has just died, but he moves “out of blackest sleep” to find himself surrounded by doctors and on the deathbed of a man in whose body he is imprisoned. After weeks of improving in the hospital, he is sent home to his affable, melting-pot, primary-colors existence in suburban America.

As Friendly breaks up with his lovers in a prelude to seducing them and mangles his patients before he sends them home, his life races backward toward the one appalling moment in modern history when such reversals make sense. From the fresh-cut lawns of his retirement to the hustle of New York, and then back to the boat which reverses his course to the war-torn Europe Friendly came from, Amis brings the steeliest nerve to the job of realizing the novel’s inevitable logic.

Trapped in his body from grave to cradle, Friendly’s consciousness can only watch as he struggles to make sense of the good doctor’s most ambitious project yet–the final solution.

Penguin 2003, paperback