You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
elizanderson1066 's review for:
How to Stop Time
by Matt Haig
A remarkable story, beautifully told.
Meet Tom Hazard - born in sixteen century France and currently living in London, in 2017. Tom suffers from a rare condition - anageria - which causes the ageing process to slow to a crawl, so at the ripe old age of 439, he appears to be in his late 40s. "Suffers" really is the operative word here. Tom has spent the majority of his life fleeing from people who notice his lack of aging and try to set him on fire, screaming witchcraft and devil-worship. Not only this, but Tom has broken the number one rule for anagerics - he has fallen in love.
Haig's story-telling is just masterful. Tom's tale is incredibly moving, not merely for the inevitable woes of having to watch anyone close to him wither with age and die, he also has to watch humans make the same mistakes over and over again throughout history. This was one of my favourite parts of the book - the commentary on modern society made from Tom's detached and weary perspective was fantastic. From comments about teaching (which I can say were right on the money), teenagers and emojis to "fake news" and Donald Trump, Haig expertly captures how it would feel to have to live through four centuries of mankind's bullshit.
Tom is eventually approached by Hendrich - a wonderfully malevolent and supremely arrogant creature who heads up the Albatross Society - a secret organisation which aims to help and protect "albas" (anagerics) when they need to move from place to place to avoid suspicion and detection, and to keep them from being captured by evil research institutes. This aspect of the novel brings originality and drama to the main concept and is, again, expertly presented by Haig throughout.
The narration and pacing are superb and I could happily have read another 300 pages. The flitting back and forth between times is a personal favourite of mine and is used to great effect. Haig's descriptions also give us some fantastic pictures of some very famous settings - Shakespearean London, the roaring twenties and even the voyages of Captain Cook. Characterisation was perfect throughout (Grace and Rose were my absolute favourites, followed closely by Mark the music teacher just for how real and accurate his twattishness was).
Anybody who just loves great fiction needs to read this book.
Meet Tom Hazard - born in sixteen century France and currently living in London, in 2017. Tom suffers from a rare condition - anageria - which causes the ageing process to slow to a crawl, so at the ripe old age of 439, he appears to be in his late 40s. "Suffers" really is the operative word here. Tom has spent the majority of his life fleeing from people who notice his lack of aging and try to set him on fire, screaming witchcraft and devil-worship. Not only this, but Tom has broken the number one rule for anagerics - he has fallen in love.
Haig's story-telling is just masterful. Tom's tale is incredibly moving, not merely for the inevitable woes of having to watch anyone close to him wither with age and die, he also has to watch humans make the same mistakes over and over again throughout history. This was one of my favourite parts of the book - the commentary on modern society made from Tom's detached and weary perspective was fantastic. From comments about teaching (which I can say were right on the money), teenagers and emojis to "fake news" and Donald Trump, Haig expertly captures how it would feel to have to live through four centuries of mankind's bullshit.
Tom is eventually approached by Hendrich - a wonderfully malevolent and supremely arrogant creature who heads up the Albatross Society - a secret organisation which aims to help and protect "albas" (anagerics) when they need to move from place to place to avoid suspicion and detection, and to keep them from being captured by evil research institutes. This aspect of the novel brings originality and drama to the main concept and is, again, expertly presented by Haig throughout.
The narration and pacing are superb and I could happily have read another 300 pages. The flitting back and forth between times is a personal favourite of mine and is used to great effect. Haig's descriptions also give us some fantastic pictures of some very famous settings - Shakespearean London, the roaring twenties and even the voyages of Captain Cook. Characterisation was perfect throughout (Grace and Rose were my absolute favourites, followed closely by Mark the music teacher just for how real and accurate his twattishness was).
Anybody who just loves great fiction needs to read this book.