What a strange and unusual book! Fortune begins on the day that Napolean Bonaparte marches into Prussia as the conquering emperor in 1806 and ends, nearly a century later, with two Australian cowboys fighting in the battle of the Somme in WWI. The book weaves together the lives of many characters, most of whom don’t intersect with one another and follows their fates and fortunes. The story is propelled forward by the plot and we don’t get a lot of character development. In fact, it almost felt like a bunch of short stories linked together. The writing was interesting with a Wes Anderson-movie vibe to it. This is not going to appeal to everyone, but it you’re looking for quirky and offbeat historical fiction, this fits the bill.

First of all, kudos to the illustrator Sandy Cull who did an AMAZING JOB with the illustration which is so vibrant and vivid. You need to hire her for more projects! Just saying...

Now on to the book! This historic epic is exactly as the book suggests " a handful of lives the briefly touch are sprung from their orbits" is absolutely true as it shows multiple characters, differing perspectives and how they all come together to form different constellations. ( history vs the individual)

Get ready to be inundated with characters at the beginning. I had to write them all down in a journal to be able to refer back to them for fear of keeping them straight. I really wish there was a chart of all the characters at the beginning that I could keep referring to as so many characters were introduced at once and in succession. Needless to say I was not bored.

The description of the people and the way the author set the scene time after time really had me feeling as if I was there. The story did an excellent job of zooming in and out of lives and just as I was getting into one storyline the author pulls back and takes me to another set of characters that are equally interesting to me and I want to learn more. As it is, this story will sweep you away because it is unpredictable and that is what I think I love most about it... and even though it's not a linear story as you would traditional see it IS cyclical as fate attracts Johannes and Elisabeth together. Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book is all over the place!
But that’s what made it a lot of fun.
The book calls itself an “epic” in the synopsis, and I can’t disagree.
I liked how scattered it felt.
We follow so many people, in so many places, through 100 years. It felt like we were apart of everything.
Time certainly not linear in this line. “Time is imposed”.
There are some characters I wish we would have seen more from. Sometimes it moves too quickly from place to place.
Thankfully, my two favorite characters (Johannes and Elizabeth) were shown a lot.
This is a tragic tale, so not for everyone, but I enjoyed my read.

Fortune by Lenny Batulin is a fabulous novel for anyone interested in historical fiction. The setting is in the time of Napolean when he beat Prussia. It jumps between multiple characters telling the story from their perspective. All of these characters are connected from the beginning of the novel in some way. They build relationships and come to know each other later in the novel. It goes through romantic relationships and even some horrific things the slaves were subjected to during this time.