How to Stop Time - Hardcover

Haig, Matt

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525522875 ISBN 13: 9780525522874

Publisher: Viking, 2018

Synopsis

“A quirky romcom dusted with philosophical observations....A delightfully witty...poignant novel.” —The Washington Post
  
“She smiled a soft, troubled smile and I felt the whole world slipping away, and I wanted to slip with it, to go wherever she was going... I had existed whole years without her, but that was all it had been. An existence. A book with no words.”

Tom Hazard has just moved back to London, his old home, to settle down and become a high school history teacher. And on his first day at school, he meets a captivating French teacher at his school who seems fascinated by him. But Tom 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. 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.

Unfortunately for Tom, 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.

How to Stop Time tells 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. It is a bighearted, wildly original novel about losing and finding yourself, the inevitability of change, and how with enough time to learn, we just might find happiness.
 
Soon to be a major motion picture starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

About this title

From the Back Cover

How many lifetimes does it take to learn how to live?

Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary forty-one-year-old, but because of a rare condition, he’s been alive for centuries. From performing with Shakespeare, to exploring the high seas with Captain Cook, to sharing cocktails with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tom has seen a lot. But now, after over four hundred years of reinventing himself to escape detection, he just wants an ordinary life. The only rule he has to follow is Don’t fall in love.

When Tom catches the eye of a captivating woman named Camille at the dog park, everything begins to unravel. Caught between the danger of discovery and the desire to build a real life, Tom learns that the thing he can’t have might just be the thing that saves him. 

A wild, bittersweet, time-travelling story, How to Stop Time is about losing and finding yourself, about the certainty of change, about the perils of love, and about the mistakes that humans are doomed to repeat. 

About the Author

Matt Haig is the author of the internationally bestselling memoir Reasons to Stay Alive, along with five novels, including The Humans and The Radleys, and several award-winning children's books. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages.

Edition details

• Publisher: Viking
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0525522875
• ISBN 13: 9780525522874
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336