Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #219 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 518 pages

Evening Standard
‘A rare book'

Daily Express, Chosen by Amanda Holden
I could not put this book down. I was enthralled...

Zembla magazine, Dec 2003
'Quite simply stunning - sensitive, inventive, original and todl with a mature and evenly weighed style'

Customer Reviews

Geralda
I finished the books last night for the fourth time (in the space of a couple of years...) and was in a cab going home. I kept crying and crying and felt so very sad even though i know what was coming.

The first time I finished reading the book I kept thinking non stop about Clare and Henry for days and days. This is the most amazing book I have read and very likely to ever read. It is the story of true love conquering everything and what amazing creatures human beings are! I can never recommend this book enough and I do so to everyone I talk about books.

Read it and you will be excited, happy, sad, enlightened.

A really unusual story
I selected this book from the reviews on Amazon so was really looking forward to it. I found it took a long time to get into it, then suddenly I was hooked. I have never really read anything so near to science fiction and it really made me think about the future and the past and if we can alter it and what would we do if we had our time again or the chance to see those who have already departed. The story was very deep with 2 characters; Clare and Henry as the main focus. Some parts I had to really concentrate on and recheck the dates to understand what was happening. Very clever story telling and I became so involved in the story I did not want it to end.

A Story Unlike Any I've Ever Encountered
A warning before you continue any further - do not read this book unless you have absolutely nothing to do for the next few days of your life. The Time Travellers Wife is so addictive that you will not be able to put it down until you've reached the very last full stop, and even after that you will not be able to think of anything else for days.

The story, simply put, is one of enduring love. Henry DeTamble is a tall, dark and handsome 28 year old alcoholic librarian with some manner of genetic disorder which causes him to uncontrollably disappear for small intervals of time and instead appear in the past or(more uncommonly) the future. Clare Abshire, tall + thin with long red hair, is an artist who is only 8 years younger than Henry, yet meets him for the first time when she is 6 years old and he is 36. Confusing? It is to begin with, but once you get your head around the concept, a beautiful tale of love, loss, longing and inevitability unfolds, the likes of which I have never encountered.

The strength of the novel lies in the characters. Audrey Niffeneger has the uncommon skill to create realistic, 3D, complex characters that seem to live lives outside the pages of the book - the reader cannot fail to care about the characters, to want them to be happy and sort everything out, almost as if they were real people you knew and cared about. There is such a rich array of characters, all from different professions with different personalities and fascinating stories all of their own. Henry and Clare are both endearing, intelligent, charming characters that you will warm to at once, and their pain becomes your pain, their happiness makes you smile.

There is a distinct change in the novel about halfway through where the writing suddenly adopts a far darker tone. The first half is dominated by the 20 year old Clare and 28 year old Henry forming the [powerful attachment which carries the rest of the story. The latter half is dominated by fear, disagreements + death, and contrast largely with the previous, happy encounters. Of course, for Henry, these happy encounters with the young Clare are occurring simultaneously with the darker future he lives in during `real-time', illustrating just how difficult and circular the concept of time.

I've read a lot of novels in my 18 years, been a fan of many different genres, but I have only ever found one book that has enchanted me quite the way the Time Travellers Wife has, and that was Birdsong by Sebastian Faulkes. There are faults with this novel, as there are with all novels, (for example, I was a bit sceptical of the readiness with which the 28 year old Henry believed everything Clare told him and was happy to cast off everything in his life and suddenly begin planning a future with Clare, considering he'd only just met her) but, as the 5 star rating probably suggests, the good aspects of the novel far outweigh any faults I could find. The way Niffeneger handles cultural references, the science of time-travel, the circular cause and effect of actions at different points in time, the various perspectives which Clare and Henry's relationship is shown, etc all show Niffeneger's talent as a writer, and knowledge of what she is writing about - you never feel at any point in the story that Niffeneger is making things up as she goes along, instead, you feel she knows what she is talking about - REALLY thought it through, and trusts her to tell you a story without any gaping plot holes, where, though the genre is science-fiction, you are never left in any doubt hat at least in the story she is writing about, everything could happen.

I could rave about this novel for hours, but what would be the point for any reader who's persisted to this point in the review would have already made up their mind as to whether they will read this book or not. I recommend this book whole-heartedly, it is a joy to read, truly entreating, and I dare you to finish it without falling in love with the characters, genuinely caring about them, and what happens to them. I won't spoil the ending, but I will say that almost all loose ends are tied, and that, although I personally feel Niffeneger could have handled the final chapters better, the writer is never untrue to the characters, and, what more can I say - this is a novel that'll make you laugh, cry, smile, from, exclaim in shocks, and almost break your heart, Read it - it might be one of the smartest things you do.