How to Stop Time: Matt Haig

I've previously read a few books by this author - love some of them and really like the others. This one had passed by me though and I picked it up now having recently read The Midnight Library (not my favourite but loved the premise). This book was first published in 2017. The book is 325 pages in 5 parts, each containing multiple chapters which jump about in time, always going back from the present day. I've read several books that have time travel at their core and structure/rules are always the key to their success. Matt Haig manages these impossibilities very strongly and I quickly forgot that this was not a reality. On starting the book, I did get the feeling that I had read it before although definitely hadn't which was very strange. I decided that, as I had had a recommendation, the details of the description from my friend had stuck in my head. The structure is really clear and I was swept along with the fantasy, never questioning the many difficult practical details. Extreme longevity is a very clever way to explore loneliness and that is a recurring theme that runs through all of the book. Tom, the main character and narrator, looks into his own soul, considering how to best live his life. The limits on his existence are constraining and he struggles to deal with their effects, meaning he continually analyses his actions in his attempts to "stop time". I was absorbed into Tom's world easily and completely believed the dilemmas that he faced, understanding how he tried to solve them. Various periods in past are visited and they are addressed in a way that is very natural. The detail is subtle with the descriptions never threatening to take away focus from the characters and the plot. Whilst the narrative jumps around in time frequently, we are always in Tom's head and the book is written in such a smooth style that is never jarring. Amongst all the life lessons that Tom considers there is plenty to be considered by those reading the book as well. This book is entertaining, emotional and thought provoking. I felt that I had learnt a lot about Tom by the end and thoroughly enjoyed sharing his journey of realisation.

So, I heard about this book on BBC Radio Two. The premise of it attracted me. People living for perhaps a millennium! Not a new idea (read the bible for long lived individuals) but all the same fascinating. The central character, a man born in the middle ages who falls in love, but doesn't seemingly age once he has reached adulthood. He falls in love and, as they say the course of love is never... Obviously he outlives his wife and he live his life through different times, having to move every so often as people are on the verge of realising he isn't ageing. He gets in scrapes, meets historical characters along the way and becomes involved in a secret society that aids people like him. But there, not all is as it seems. He has a daughter and she is also an Alba (long lived person, named after the albatross) and he wants to find her. Anyway, enough of the story. Except to say it's the story here that captures your interest. You do become involved in the plot and the central character and there's certainly a pull for the reader to discover the eventual outcome. It is, indeed, a good read. But is it perfect? Not really. There are a number of areas I would point to there. As our intrepid hero lives through the centuries, he meets historical characters, fairly improbably I thought sometimes. I have to say it reminded me a bit of Forest Gump meeting the presidents. The storyline jumps from the present to previous centuries too. Probably a necessary tool to tell this story, but at each jump, there's the risk of losing the reader's interest and having to engage again. The story, at times descends in to reflective mode and interest can wane there too. But I didn't find this terminal. Actually, in perspective, I think I'm nit-picking about what I found to be in the end, a good, engaging book. Freddie Mercury once sang "Who Wants To Live Forever?" No doubt whilst painfully aware of his own mortality. Who was he kidding? Despite the problems illustrated in this book, I'd give it a go. As, indeed, you should give reading this book a go.

This is a lovely story, beautifully written, a literary novel that is an easy read, not always easy to come by. I suspect that Matt Haig may have been inspired by old episodes of Dr Who, the David Tennant and Billie Piper era. Haig tells the story of Tom Hazard, seemingly in his early forties. In fact Tom is an Alba, someone who lives for centuries. There are hundreds of them secretly living among the rest of us. Albas have to change identities every seven years so that normal mortals don't realise that they aren't aging. This is something that has proved problematic over time, especially when people believed in witchcraft. In the present day Tom has a job as a history teacher, perfect for him as his memories really bring the subject to life. His new lives are arranged by the head of an Alba organisation, a sinister and controlling figure who demands obedience. Anybody who is likely to expose the Alba's secret is likely to be eliminated. The underlying theme to this story is love. Tom meets and falls in love with Rose, a feisty seller of roses and he loves her for centuries, long after she has passed away. Tom and Rose had a daughter, Marion, who Tom hasn't seen for a very long time. He is desperate for news of her. The story is really quite heartbreaking in places. The jazz age, the Edwardian era, Shakespeare, all of these elements bring the story to life but it is the characters human connection and love for each other that really makes this such a life-affirming read.

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. 🫶🏻

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.

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)

Um dos melhores livros que eu já li, sem a menor dúvida. Com um elemento de viagem no tempo, história, ficcão científica, romance, e muita delicadeza, é um livro belíssimo. Se tornou um dos meus livros preferidos.