by Martin Amis
First published 1992
Tod T. Friendly dies and immediately feels better than he has in years. His life unfolds backward through time. He breaks up with women only to seduce them later. He injures patients in his office before sending them away healed. Every day moves him further into his past. Tod watches his actions reverse their normal meaning as time flows the wrong direction. His backward journey carries him toward one terrible period in history when his inverted experience will finally make sense. The closer he gets to that moment, the more his strange existence reveals its dark purpose. Tod must live through his entire life in reverse to understand why his death felt like relief.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century
Vibes: dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: time-reversal, unreliable-narrator
Period: 20th-Century
165 pages · Paperback · Vintage
Content warnings: violence