Natasha Pulley's 'The Kingdoms' a tantalizing time-travel tale

In 1898 England, a man steps off a train from Glasgow and experiences the first memory of his life. The reader is only on Page 1, but already the world of "The Kingdoms" (Bloomsbury, 448 pp., ★★★ out of four) is out of order: London is called “Londres,” because England is a colony and French is its only legal language; 43-year-old Joe can’t recall his own history; and soon a mysterious postcard arrives with a picture of a lighthouse and a note from a person who claims to know him. The postcard was mailed a century earlier.

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