Life After Life

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss instances of sexual violence, domestic violence, death by suicide, termination of a pregnancy, and child loss.

Ursula enters a warm German café, joins a table full of men, and comments on the rain. She pulls a gun from her handbag—her father’s service revolver from the Great War—and points it at the Führer. Ursula knows she has “One breath. One shot” (4). She pulls the trigger, and “Darkness [falls]” (4).

A baby is born, and “All the world [came] down to this. One breath” (7). But the baby does not breathe. Sylvie is giving birth early, without Dr. Fellowes, helped only by her maid, Bridget. The cord is wrapped around the neck, and the infant is blue.

Dr. Fellowes arrives at Fox Corner and cuts the cord from around the baby girl’s neck. He reports that the midwife was caught in the snow at Chalfont St. Peter. Bridget is 14, from Ireland, 10 years younger than Sylvie. Sylvie’s father was a society artist and her first love was her pony, Tiffin. She holds her third child lovingly.