The novel “Borrowed Time” by Naomi A. Alderman was published for the first time in 2011.
Andrew Brown found himself working in a large bank such as the Lexington International Bank almost by chance. Little by little, he climbed the ladder of its hierarchy but he struggles more and more due to the lack of time to do everything he’s asked in the best possible way. When the mysterious Mr. Symington and Mr. Blenkinsop make him a surprising proposal, he accepts without understanding all the consequences.
Amy Pond and Rory Williams are having a rather peculiar holiday but something doesn’t go very well. The Eleventh Doctor decides to show them the greatest banking collapse in history but when he and his companions arrive at the Lexington International Bank, he discovers strange things that convince him to investigate.
“Borrowed Time” is part of a series of novels connected to the new “Doctor Who” series. They’re targeted to a wide audience by being linear enough to be appreciated even by very young readers but sophisticated enough to interest more mature readers. With the adventures of the Eleventh Doctor, there was a small change in the size of the novels about “Doctor Who” new series adventures, which have become slightly larger.
When “Borrowed Time” was published for the first time, the memory of the economic crisis that had hit the world was still fresh, with banks and financial institutions often at the center of the problems. This novel doesn’t pretend to tell in depth how the banking system works and what can send it into crisis, but it certainly offers some information on certain mechanisms that can become perverse.
This very serious theme is explored in a literal way in the sense that the novel is set in a bank, but also in a metaphorical way. Andrew Brown works for the Lexington International Bank and is at a point in his life where he doesn’t find the time to do everything he needs to do and is unable to do anything he would like to do. When two strange men give him the opportunity to literally borrow time, it seems like a good deal, but only when it’s too late does he understand the real cost.
The metaphor of the loan is developed throughout the novel to explain how people need to pay extreme attention to how interest is calculated and to all the clauses in a contract. The subject is complex but the basics are simplified through metaphors to help the reader understand what happens when they take on loans. The metaphor of the sharks assisting Mr. Symington and Mr. Blenkinsop in managing the loans is very transparent in a story where there’s no room for subtlety.
As is usual in the books in this series, the pace tends to be fast with events that follow one another and are marked by action and twists. The Doctor leads his companions among the managers of the Lexington International Bank by posing as an auditor and this allows him to come into contact with Andrew Brown and some of his colleagues. Amy is passed off as his assistant while poor Rory ends up in the mailroom, where he still manages to make himself useful.
All of this is used by Naomi A. Alderman to create a story that, in my opinion, is over the top in a positive way. “Borrowed Time” seemed to me to be a novel that manages to reproduce the protagonists well in the type of “Doctor Who” story that is fun and at the same time, develops a very serious theme. For this reason, I recommend reading it. It’s available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
