A God in Ruins

Teddy Todd survived World War II when so many of his fellow RAF bomber pilots did not, and Kate Atkinson's Costa Award-winning novel wrestles with what survival actually costs. Set across decades of the twentieth century, the book follows Teddy from his wartime missions over Germany through his quietly unsettled peacetime life as husband, father, and grandfather, asking whether a man shaped entirely by the expectation of death can ever fully inhabit a long life.

Alex Jennings brings an understated warmth to Teddy that suits the character's reserved nature, navigating Atkinson's nonlinear structure with ease and keeping the emotional thread intact across the novel's many time shifts. His rendering of the supporting cast is equally assured, giving each generation of the Todd family a distinct texture. At over sixteen hours, the production rewards patient listening, and Atkinson's prose, with its sharp wit and sudden tenderness, translates exceptionally well to audio, where Jennings can let the silences between lines carry as much weight as the words themselves.