The Ministry of Time

In The Ministry of Time, a shady government ministry is bringing people from various pasts into the present where they are allocated a 'bridge' to help them orient themselves and the main narrator is one of these 'bridges'.

There are the standard tropes of time travel: how to manipulate the present to achieve the necessary future outcome, travellers coming back from the future to change the past, a future version of a self meeting the present version of the same person, people on the run from mysterious enemies.

But this innovative novel blends spy romance with time travel and explores themes of racism, colonization, feminism, gender equality, religion, climate crises etc. Ultimately it becomes something far more than a sci-fi time travel story. It's very thought provoking and sad, with just enough humor for levity and human connections for hope.