Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-29
• 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...

Synopsis
This extraordinary, magical novel is the story of Clare and Henry who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-two and Henry thirty. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself pulled suddenly into his past or future. His disappearances are spontaneous and his experiences are alternately harrowing and amusing. The Time Traveler's Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare's passionate love for each other with grace and humour. Their struggle to lead normal lives in the face of a force they can neither prevent nor control is intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.

Customer Reviews

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.

Good, but needed some brutal editing
After reading this book I found it difficult to decide if I had actually enjoyed it. The plot didn't seem to really unfurl until four hundred pages had passed; I didn't sympathise with any of the irritatingly perfect characters; and the ordinary prose would frequently jar when characters who were usually eloquent would suddenly slip into sexual colloquial (I originally gave examples, but amazon rejected my review!). Character development is one thing, but inconsistency is quite another, and it certainly seemed to fall into the latter category.

That said, I finished it, and considering the novel is comfortably over five hundred pages long, that does say something really positive about it, as many other novels would have fallen by the wayside. Something, though I know not what, kept me reading.

I believe that if the novel had had two hundred pages edited out it would have been a much pacier book and its limitations less noticeable. I know two hundred sounds an awful lot, and it is, but I genuinely don't think it would have hampered the story or the characterisation. As it is, the book is good, but you won't be missing out if you don't read it.

Unputdownable!
An obscure concept that totally works. I haven't enjoyed a book this much in a long time!