Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43266 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
Every once in a blue moon a novel turns up which has a magic all of its own. Such a book was In the Place of Fallen Leaves by Tim Pears back in 1993; and now here is another heralded by Dan Franklin, publishing director of Cape, as a book "everyone falls in love with". How right he is. It's the story of Henry and Claire, who meet when Claire is aged six and Henry in his 30s. They were married when Claire was 20 and Henry 28, which is possible because Henry can time travel. It is not science fiction, but a love story with a difference - a wonderful, strange and original novel which is both moving and funny - you must get a copy and read it. I can't praise it too highly. Film rights bought by New Line Cinema in association with Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.

You magazine, Mail on Sunday, 21st December 2003
'A magical debut novel'

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

Customer Reviews

Good, light hearted read.
I really enjoyed this book. Once you get used to all the to-ing and fro-ing, and take it for what it is (mostly a typical love story with devoted girl, naughty-boy-turned-good-husband) then it is great. A perfect holiday read.

MAKE IT A FILM
I love this book, read it three times, and bought it twice. (Dont lend out good books) Can someone please make a film out of this book.

Waste of time
Meet Henry deTamble. Henry used to be selfish and shallow, but he matures as he grows older. Meet Claire Abshire, who is elegant and likes sushi. Henry and Claire love each other very much (we know, because they keep telling each other). They want to get married and live a normal life, but this is complicated by Henry's uncontrollable time-travelling, which worries Claire and makes it hard for them to have a baby. But on the upside, it does mean that they can use lottery tickets and stock market tips from the future to supplement Claire's dissatisfactory trust fund. (Seriously.)

And that's about it. How such a rich concept ended up yielding such a conventional love story is beyond me. The boring, pretentious characters move along surprisingly predictable ruts, and maybe the passion escapes me, but I found it hard to care about any of them. One star for an original idea, and one star for an admittedly moving (although long overdue) ending. Unlike the marvellous 'The Lovely Bones', this one doesn't begin to live up to the hype.