Book 71 - Matt Haig "How To Stop Time"
Nov. 7th, 2024 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzy_daveMatt Haig "How To Stop Time" (Canongate)
Tom Hazard is a seemingly middle-aged man starting a new job as a secondary school history teacher in a London borough. However, due to an extremely rare condition, he does not age as humans usually do and has actually been alive several centuries.
Every eight years he must change his identity and location to avoid being exposed. The main rule of his life being not to get emotionally attached to any one life or one person because sooner or later he will have to move on.
The book is set mainly in the present but through a series of flashbacks Tom takes the reader on a journey through several centuries of British history taking in the witch trials, the plague, colonialism, Shakespeare and jazz along the way.
It turns out, he is not the only one with this condition and a society has been set up to help and protect people like him, and Tom is a fully paid up member. But Tom is tired of hiding and being alone. The question is, what will his breaking of the society's rules cost him?
At first the book seems to be just another immortal story with witch-hunters rather than vampires, but in reality its a love letter to life, how we should cherish every moment because you never know when everything will change and as such is moving and life affirming.
This is my first book by the author and I have to say despite a few minor quibbles, the repetition of how smelly London used to be being one, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had a good pace to it, the history was interesting without being too detailed and I felt that Haig showed a deft touch with the old heart strings. I will certainly be on the look out for more of his offerings.
Tom Hazard is a seemingly middle-aged man starting a new job as a secondary school history teacher in a London borough. However, due to an extremely rare condition, he does not age as humans usually do and has actually been alive several centuries.
Every eight years he must change his identity and location to avoid being exposed. The main rule of his life being not to get emotionally attached to any one life or one person because sooner or later he will have to move on.
The book is set mainly in the present but through a series of flashbacks Tom takes the reader on a journey through several centuries of British history taking in the witch trials, the plague, colonialism, Shakespeare and jazz along the way.
It turns out, he is not the only one with this condition and a society has been set up to help and protect people like him, and Tom is a fully paid up member. But Tom is tired of hiding and being alone. The question is, what will his breaking of the society's rules cost him?
At first the book seems to be just another immortal story with witch-hunters rather than vampires, but in reality its a love letter to life, how we should cherish every moment because you never know when everything will change and as such is moving and life affirming.
This is my first book by the author and I have to say despite a few minor quibbles, the repetition of how smelly London used to be being one, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had a good pace to it, the history was interesting without being too detailed and I felt that Haig showed a deft touch with the old heart strings. I will certainly be on the look out for more of his offerings.
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