The Time Traveler's Wife

by Audrey Niffenegger and Audrey Neffenegger

This extraordinary, magical first novel is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, a librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-two and Henry thirty. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity in his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing."The Time Traveler's Wife" depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare's marriage and their passionate love for each other as the story unfolds from both points of view. Clare and Henry attempt to live normal lives, pursuing familiar goals - steady jobs, good friends, children of their own. All of this is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control, making their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.

• ISBN10: 193156146X
• ISBN13: 9781931561464
• Publish Date: 1 September 2003
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: MacAdam/Cage Publishing, Incorporated
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 518
• Language: English

Reviews

[anastasia]

Review posted at SoManyBooksSoLittleTime

[Hillary]

http://purplemoonmyst.wordpress.com/2008/10/04/review-time-travlers-wife/

[mitabird]

I didn't have any expectations when I started reading this story. Frankly, I didn't even know what it was about. I believe I got the book because of a rec from PBS, but it had been sitting on my shelf for a better part of two years. I gave it to a co-worker to read and she insisted that I needed to read it. Well, I finally did and all I can say is WOW! What a great book. It's basically about a guy named Henry who time-travels, his relationship with his wife, Clare, their inability to conceive and the attempt to stop or, at least, control Henry's time-traveling. Henry cannot control when he goes or where he goes. I experienced many emotions while reading this book: happiness, sadness, laughter, wonder, awe. It's a beautifully written novel that will stay with me for some time. It's definitely one of the best books I've ever read.

[ladygrey]

I did not enjoy this book at all. Although the premise was unique and interesting I found the book itself to be crass. The romance that the whole story hinged on was not romantic at all. It was just a lot of sex trying to convince us it was love.

[ibeforem]

This was the most beautiful, unique story I’ve read in ages. I was intrigued by it almost from the start. I’m not a poetry fan, but the poems used in this book were beautiful and odd and appropriate. I liked the use of both Henry and Clare’s points of view. For me, it raised some interesting questions about fate and free will. Despite the jumping around in time, I didn’t find it hard to follow at all.

I read some of the negative reviews on Amazon, because when I like a book this much I like the see why people *didn’t* like it, to see if I was blinded to something. It seemed to me that the people that didn’t like either 1) didn’t like that it jumped around in time, 2) didn’t like the language and/or sex, 3) found some fault in the mechanics of the time travel, 4) thought the characters were flat (huh?) or 5) thought it was too long and/or wordy. Personally, I enjoyed the level of detail, and I liked that it was really set up as a series of vignettes. It seemed to be the only way it could be done. Dates and ages were given at every step, so I’m not sure why people get so lost.

I did listen to this rather than read it, and I wonder if I would have felt the same if I *had* read it. I listened to the unabridged version read by William Hope and Laurel Lefkow, and it was masterful. The only problem was that towards the end I was in danger of DWS — Driving While Sobbing. Very distracting!

[Eve1972]

Fabulous read!!

[empressbrooke]

My complete love for this book is rather remarkable, given that I think anything considered a "romance" is fit only for being used to balance chairs with wobbly legs. However, it's a perfect blend of sci-fi and romance - so much so that romance fans probably don't even realize they're reading a sci-fi novel, and sci-fi fans aren't gagging from the overdose of love and soulmates.

What set this apart from every single other love story I've ever seen or read is that it's completely realistic. The main characters are REAL, and details about them like their love for punk music just add to it. Their relationship feels organic; it wasn't sappy, it wasn't something that just doesn't happen in real life (minus the time traveling, of course). It left me with this massive longing that I still remember all these years after reading it, whereas most romance and chick flicks and the like leave me feeling like I want to puke my innards out and then take a long, scalding hot shower.

It's also one of the very few Super Popular Books of the Year That You Can't Escape that actually deserved its spot.