How to Stop Time

A hugely enjoyable read,its a captivating book you will not be able to put down.A love story across the ages and for the ages about a man lost in time, the woman who could save him, and the lifetimes it can take to learn how to live...Nothing can beat this astounding love story that lasts 400 years...Matt Haig takes on this challenge with gusto in How to Stop Time.This novel is a bighearted, wildly original story about losing and finding yourself, the inevitability of change, and how with enough time to learn, we just might find happiness, Matt has been gifted with a rare ability, which is to make even the ridiculously far fetched seem so believable. The story is about Tom Hazard who has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41year old, but owing to a rare condition, he’s been alive for centuries.For every 13 or 14 human years, he ages one year. But far from bringing him godlike pleasure, his condition places him at a mournful distance from the rest of humanity, doomed to see everyone he loves age and die.Tom Hazard serves as an excellent guide to the most recent 400-odd years of human history.Haig writes with a great deal of panache, and it’s clear that he’s having a lot of fun with his story.Tom has lived history performing with Shakespeare, exploring the high seas with Captain Cook, and sharing cocktails with Fitzgerald. Now, he just wants an ordinary life.So Tom moves back his to London, his old home, to become a high school history teacher,the perfect job for someone who has witnessed the city’s history first hand. Better yet, a captivating French teacher at his school seems fascinated by him. But the Albatross Society, the secretive group which protects people like Tom, has one rule: Never fall in love. As painful memories of his past and the erratic behavior of the Society’s watchful leader threaten to derail his new life and romance, the one thing he can’t have just happens to be the one thing that might save him. Tom will have to decide once and for all whether to remain stuck in the past, or finally begin living in the present.The idea of a character who lives for centuries, finding himself in the right place at the right time to interact with significant historical figures, has been used to examine the notion of time itself and our relationship to it, the fear of ageing, of death and, occasionally, the problems associated with not dying at all. the most interesting element of the book, however, is the philosophical one that Tom asks of himself: What is the point of living when you have no one to live for? As his loneliness continues, only the possibility of a relationship with another teacher and his search for his daughter keep him going, and when it seems that both will end in failure it’s easy to understand why he, to employ one of Haig’s earlier titles, might run out of reasons to stay alive.How to Stop Time is a worthy addition to the time travel canon,hugely entertaining,quietly funny and,at its best moments, contemplative and brooding.

Good book. Bit pricey for a one time read.

One of the finest authors around, a must read for any book reader

Not a page turner yet..still reading.. PS: need resilience if you are fighting depression. I really like Matt haig's writing. It's the sad truth amidst the story-telling that moves me the most.

How would your life be if you grow old at rate slower than much of population. This is a book to be read in one sitting.

His books are always good

How to stop time? The answer is as simple as this - we must choose to live - in the Present...in the Moment...in the Now! The book takes you on a journey through time. It contains pockets of emotions, that are difficult to explain. It's like those feelings that don't have a word in English to describe it. I liked the characters Rose and Omai, who help in shaping, or transforming the protagonist into who he is. The story is best for those who has lost someone they love to time. Like Omai says "People you love never die." This is one of my favorite lines from the book. I can see a sequel to this book. "How to move Time" featuring Marion ( the protagonist's badass daughter). She deserves a standalone novel.

Very ingaging book. The book has five parts. A very good book by sir Matt Haig . . . .

Love this author. Enjoy the story line. Fun concepts that make the story interesting.

“People you love never die” (original quotation) Content: Tom Hazard is a history teacher in London and he likes what he does. But what seems to be a normal life, for him does not mean normality at all, because he was born on the third of March 1581, which means that now he is 437 years old. Not that he is immortal, it is only that he is aging very, very slow. In 1890, a doctor had called this condition “anageria”, his lifelong mentor Hendrich calls people like them (and there are more) albatrosses, or just albas. The problem for people like Tom is that they have to change identity, places to live, before their neighbors are wondering and become suspicious. In 1603 he fell in love with Rose, they got married in 1607 and as she got older, the difference between him and her was even more visible. The 17th century was an especially dangerous period for people being somehow different, but also in our modern times, for Tom there seems to be no place to just live a normal life – but, what if? … what if he falls in love again? … This story is much more than “fantasy” and definitely not “science fiction”. It is more a travel through time and centuries, with vivid descriptions of the Shakespearian London and Paris in the “Golden Twenties”. But it is not about time-travelling, as Tom cannot go back into the past. Written in the 1st person and in chapters, the story is set in nowadays London and Tom thinks and speaks about his life in form of many flashbacks, each chapter heading defines time and location. Based on his experiences during more than 400 years, Tom now is ruled by the situation, by the time, by his fears that have grown from the risk of discovery of his special condition and above all he feels his loneliness. Based on his experiences he never wants to fall in love again. Some of his fears and concerns are given rise by Hendrich, who is much older than Tom and who is the Head of the Albatross Organization, who helps Albas with new identities. But Tom during the complete story is and remains a really loveable, often struggeling main character. The story is enjoyable and entertaining to read, with exciting turns. For readers who like historical fiction and plots in different time settings.

Esta novela me llamó la atención por el título (todo lo que tiene que ver con el tiempo me mueve mucho, para bien y para no tan bien), además ya había leído otra novela del autor, por lo que supuse que esta me gustaría. Y sí. ✨🤩 Fue un libro propuesto para el BookClub 📕 pero definitivamente el estilo y los temas del autor, me gustan mucho. En resumen, esta historia va de un hombre de 400 años de edad que vive y existe a través del tiempo, se mueve cuidando no revelar su verdadera identidad pues tiene esta condición de "envejecer" de una forma muy distinta, a su ritmo. En el libro te cuenta de sus múltiples vidas, de las personas célebres a quienes conoce como Shakespeare o Fitzgerald, de su primer amor, y hasta de un segundo amor a quien conoce en el presente, porque a sus 400 años decide ser maestro de historia. La aventura va de contar todas sus "vidas" y la incansable búqueda de Marion (su hija perdida en el tiempo). El protagonista vive con "miedo", huyendo de sí mismo, de cuidar que no descubran su condición, y evita crear vínculos y disfrutar el aquí y ahora. Porque ya vio a su gran amor morir, a su familia y a personas a las que quiso y admiró. Porque saber que las personas a su alrededor son temporales, es doloroso. ❤️‍🩹 Te lleva a preguntarte si vale la pena preocuparse por los demás y por el futuro, o por qué creemos que los otros están tan al pendiente de cómo vivimos o de lo que hacemos, o si un segundo de amor y conexión real vale la pena comparado con toda una vida de esconderse y huir de tu pasado, de quien eres, de tus sentimientos o de la realidad. Pasamos mucho tiempo pensando en lo que será o podría ser, en vez de enfocarnos en el presente, que es el único lugar en el que estamos viviendo y del cuál podemos tener certeza. 🤍 Love is where you find the meaning. 🫶🏻

I went on a binge and read all of his books because the first one got me in. I wasn’t disappointed. This man has a way that’s easy to read while being very insightful and enlightening. I simply didn’t want it to end! This story has everything I love in a good read. Great characters, interesting setting, fantastic story line, unpredictable. And his insights into people are worthy of a book on their own. He never waffles on, in fact there’s some, actually many, one sentence lines that are so amazing I had to stop and let them sink in for quite some time so I wouldn’t loose their intense meaning, their simplistic beauty. He’s a very clever writer and now up there on my favourites list.

“Midnight Library” yi almıştım fena değildi, o yüzden bunu aldım. Dili çok sade akıcı, bilinmeyen kelimeye pek rastlamıyorsunuz. “Midnight Library” den daha zengin geldi bana, yolculukta okumak için alıyorum. Tek şikayetim; kitabın kağıt kalitesi 3.hamur ama fiyatı birinci sınıf (çok pahalı)