How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

How to Stop Time

by Matt Haig

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE 2017 BOOKS ARE MY BAG READERS AWARD FOR POPULAR FICTION

Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he's been alive for centuries. From Elizabethan England to Jazz-Age Paris, from New York to the South Seas, Tom has seen a lot, and now craves an ordinary life.

Always changing his identity to stay alive, Tom has the perfect cover - working as a history teacher at a London comprehensive. Here he can teach the kids about wars and witch hunts as if he'd never witnessed them first-hand. He can try to tame the past that is fast catching up with him. The only thing Tom must not do is fall in love.

How to Stop Time is a wild and bittersweet story about losing and finding yourself, about the certainty of change and about the lifetimes it can take to really learn how to live.

Reviewed by luddite on

4 of 5 stars

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Poignant, well-written, neat prose in that it's reflective and contemplative without being a drone.

This book is going to stay with me for a while because of how it unpacks questions of time, uncertainty, and living with fear and loss.

Good chunks of profundity and beautifully written.

"He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears." (Montaigne)

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 30 July, 2017: Finished reading
  • 30 July, 2017: Reviewed