Books book reviews Time and Tide: The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien A novel that leaps across centuries past and future, as if different eras were separated by only a door. By Mahvesh Murad | Published on June 18, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share Madeleine Thien’s last book, Booker and Women’s Prize shortlisted 2016 novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing, refers to a manuscript that the characters share amongst each other in secret. This manuscript is called The Book of Records, which Thien later explained was a narrative in which her characters saw mirror versions of themselves in an alternative China. This idea of mirror selves existing in alternative worlds continues in her new novel The Book of Records, in which a woman looks back at her time in a surreal transient space called the Sea.  Lina and her father leave their home Foshan in southern China very suddenly, partly because of climate change, partly for reasons that become apparent later in the novel, that have to do with Lina’s father’s work. In Foshan, Lina’s father Wei Shen had worked as a systems engineer “managing the structures of cyberspace.” Looking back at her life, Lina explains that her father had worked “for the government and, later, against it.” He refers to their sudden departure from Foshan as an exile that was a “blessing because [they] had freed [themselves] from an empire in ruins, a hall of mirrors in which good people could betray themselves and never even know it.” When they reach the Sea, Lina is just seven, and Wui Shen attempts to explain the strange space to her as buildings “made of time.” “Everyone passes through the Sea,” he says. “After these buildings, histories break apart… The Sea is a length of string crossing over itself. The Sea is made of time.” It is a sort of transit lounge, a half-way house almost, a labyrinthian structure of enclaves rambling by a nameless sea, a place where people only arrive in order to move on, usually quite fast. But Lina and her father do not leave for many, many years. He is too sick to move; she is unwilling to leave him. He is also adamant that her mother and brother will find them there. And so Lina grows up in the Sea, reading and rereading the same three books her father grabbed off their shelves when they left Foshan, as she watches other migrants come and go.  Lina wanders through the enclaves, finding new rooms and spaces often filled with things left behind by both time and tide, with only a handful of people around who seem as stalled in that strange limbo world as she and her father are. These three neighbours bear a great similarity to the three people Lina’s only books are about. The books are biographies of Baruch Spinoza, the 17th Century philosopher; Hannah Arendt, the German philosopher; and Du Fu, the Tang Dynasty Chinese poet. Each of them was forced to move out of their home by circumstances out of their control; migration forced by war is a central theme of the novel, as is being cast out of society for being perceived as the “other.” Lina discovers the existence of neighbours Bento, Blucher, and Jupiter one day while wandering the halls of the abandoned building she lives in, and is surprised to find that they seem to have been there forever, living together, accepting her entry into their lives as perfectly natural. Who are her neighbours, if not versions of the historic figures in her books, avatars echoing through time? The Book of Records examines how no matter how different lives may be, shared experiences resonate through decades, centuries, continuing through time and creating a sense of community via empathy.  Buy the Book The Book of Records Madeleine Thien Buy Book The Book of Records Madeleine Thien Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget Thien has spoken in interviews of being left with books a lot as a child. Lina too is often alone, and is essentially raised by the three books she has, by the people those books are about, and then their real life versions who live alongside her. “How much can a child learn from just three books?” says Wui Shen to Lina. “Maybe you and I should set our sights on the world that emerges between each and every person. Maybe imagination is a way to find that place.” The story shifts between Lina and the three historic characters’ lives, so there is a lot of jumping back and forth along various time lines, geographical locations, and complex political situations. It is not easy to keep up with, because while the language is consistently elegant, it can also be at times languorous and monotone; regardless of whose story is being told, there isn’t much of a distinction in voice. There is a lot of highbrow philosophical discussion. There is not a lot of plot; there may not be a plot at all, in fact. Thien is clearly more interested in lyricism and texture and large philosophical concepts than in plot and story, but The Book of Records often makes you feel as if you’re drowning.  Lina’s voice stands out perhaps a little more among the rest at first, but very quickly fades into the background. Which is a shame, since she is more interesting. The parts of the novel that document her life in the Sea are the ones that really sing, though the worldbuilding of a post climate change environment is sparse. The stories of the historical figures are fictionalised history, and delve into the philosophies of each person as well as into their personal and professional lives, often leaving the reader feeling uncertain as to how they connect with Lina’s story, and why. Why this, why them, why these ideas? It takes a fair bit of time to realise that this is not a new story or an old story. It is a story that exists constantly—one that is always being written, rewritten, evolving—but at its core, it remains the same. Who are we when we are not where we thought we belonged? Does where we are define who we are? We talk of migrants, of third culture kids, of climate change and of war refugees or economic migrants—but how do we define our identity? Culturally, ethnically, geographically? Questions arise about belonging, community, finding refuge, making a home for yourself. Nebulous trails connect the characters with themes of escape from totalitarian regimes and coercion; it is only much later in her life that Lina is able to understand why her father fled, and that her father’s life was “a weight [she] should never have been made to carry.”  If one is to say that this book is Madeleine Thien at her best, then it would be prudent to remember what she’s best at. Those looking for a strong plot will be disappointed. Those looking for large scale philosophical vibes and beauty and heartache and love and loss and a search for belonging will sigh at the pleasure of reading all this in some very sophisticated prose. As Wui Shen says, “You’ll never be content if you can’t separate what you want from what really is. This world isn’t what you wish it to be, this world is more than we can begin to imagine, and sometimes I think it’s more than we deserve.” Lina, as an adult, thinks back to her father’s words and finds that they approach her like warning, “a map and a caution.” As they should do Thien’s readers, too.[end-mark] The Book of Records is published by W. W. Norton & Company. The post Time and Tide: <i>The Book of Records</i> by Madeleine Thien appeared first on Reactor.