How to Stop Time

How to Stop Time is a fictional novel written by English writer Matt Haig and published in 2017.

How to Stop Time
CountryUK
Genrefantasy fiction, romance, history
PublisherCanongate (UK), Penguin (US)
Pages352
ISBN9780525522898

Plot summary

Tom Hazard is a high school history teacher who has just moved back to London. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but due to a rare condition, he has been alive for centuries. Tom was born in 1581 in France and has lived history alongside famous historical characters such as Shakespeare, Captain Cook, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Now, he just wants an ordinary life.

As the story unfolds, Tom has to decide whether to remain stuck in the past, or finally begin living in the present, while constantly being under the supervision of the Albatross Society, the secretive group which claims to protect people like him.

Reception

NPR considered it "a meditation on the tick and tock of time and mortality.".[1]

The Guardian reviewer said "The energy and zip of this book are hard to resist".[2]

A review by English writer Clare Clark in The New York Times, compared it unfavorably to Matt Haig's previous book The Humans. According to Clark, while "The Humans was warmhearted, sharply observed and often laugh-out-loud funny, funny enough to forgive Haig’s alien his regrettable fondness for fortune-cookie philosophy", [How to Stop Time] "leaving the reader craving some of the sharp-edged black humor that made The Humans such a delight."[3]

The film rights to the book were acquired and a motion picture is in the process of production, starring Benedict Cumberbatch.[4]

References
  1. Sheehan, Jason. "Immortality, Sadness and Drinking with Shakespeare in 'How to Stop Time'". NPR. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  2. Eyre, Hermione (5 July 2017). "How to Stop Time by Matt Haig review – a high-concept romance". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  3. Clark, Clare (16 February 2018). "What Would It Be Like to Be 400 Years Old?". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  4. Bell, Jacqui (10 March 2018). "Matt Haig's How to Stop Time to be a Movie". for reading addicts. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
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