I found this book very enjoyable making it quick and easy to read. Matt Haig has an excellent knack to character building so I really felt for Tom stuck in his own personal purgatory of undying love and grief. Matt’s nod to up-to-the-minute culture juxtaposed perfectly with Elizabethan England. I was slightly irritated that he found himself almost serendipitously placed at many points throughout his (exceedingly long) life to overlap with such prestigious characters, but realised that therein lay the power and facility of Hendrich. It’ll no doubt be a bestseller and perfect for screen adaptation.

I understand the hype... this book is a truly original read.

Tom's story alternates between the past, present and eventually the future, as we discover that he has lived for over 400 years and still only looks about 35. But has he really been living? His nomadic lifestyle of moving every 8 years and being tied to the ominous Albatross Society no longer offers him any joy. What is the purpose of an eternal life?

This is fast-paced and engrossing, with never a dull moment. What is truly masterful about the writing and narrative is that despite the fact that Tom is in essence immortal, his quest against time and to ensure his life has meaning is so common to all us "mayflies".

The reason it's not a 5 stars? Well I thought at times (particularly towards the end) the narrative was rushed. The actions and motivations of some characters seemed unlikely, and it was all tied up with a neat bow by the end despite some annoying unanswered questions. That is not to say that the ending wasn't what I was hoping for, but you shouldn't always get exactly what you want as a reader.

This was a great book. I expected nothing else from Mr. Haig but as his non fiction work has always moved me more than his fiction, I was surprised to love this tender story about the fragility of humanity and the passing of time.

It had a bit of a slow start for me and the outbursts of descriptive clichés and the slightly predictable ending did burst the bubble a bit, but in the end it didn’t matter so much.

Because the story took hold and became a page turner that I could not let down. The journey through history swept me along and for being an average size of a book it felt like it lasted for a really long time, which is kind of funny since its all about the passing of time.

All in all a solid and touching read with the conclusion that living in the present is the only way to live.

An engaging & inventive novel which juggles multiple timelines & plot strands effectively & creates a very likeable & believable hero in Tom. I can't think of anything else I've read like it & will be recommending it widely.

I simply adored this book. I was a little worried that it might be time-travelly, a bit scifi, but its not. Tom Hazard, to give him one of his names, has a condition that means his body only ages by 1 year for every 15 years of being alive, a condition that started in puberty and he is not the only one blessed or afflicted. It means that when we meet him today he has been alive for over 400 years but has aged to only a forty-something. The only time travelling we do is through his memories as he relates episodes from his life including meeting Shakespeare, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, falling in love and having a child and accompanying Captain Cook on a voyage of discovery. It is an amazing life in which his mother was drowned as a witch, he plays piano in Harry's Bar and now teaches history in an inner-London comprehensive. But there are great dangers and shadowy characters and difficult questions and Tom realizes that in the end only love is the answer. Great story, amazing characters, lots to think about but so readable.

I really enjoyed this book. It's a playful fantasy that's grounded in a very profound narrative about the meaning of life.

The book is founded on a fantastic premise - that some people age slower and can live for hundreds of years - but is delivered with such practicality that you truly believe the events could be fact. Haig's uses the premise to explore his favourite periods in history and literature (Shakespearean England and F Scott Fitzgerald-occupied 1920s Paris) and provides some of the book's most entertaining and intriguing chapters.

There's also a serious narrative that underpins the book, which I imagine has been informed substantially by Haig's experiences of ill health. Albas - characters with the unusual ageing genes - search for meaning, belonging and connection in a lifetime in which love is found and lost more regularly than normal.

Overall, I found the book to be a well-written, entertaining story that left me feeling uplifted and ready to appreciate the smaller things in life.

I loved the idea of this book and for a while it had me gripped but then the conincidences of who Tom met started to drive me mad and the ending left me a little cold. Lots to talk about however and a book that isn't universally loved makes the best book group choice

I had high hopes for Matt Haig’s latest novel after being impressed with his honest eloquence and heart in Reasons To Stay Alive and hearing good things about the Humans. The premise in intriguing if not entirely original. Tom Hazard is old. 439 years old to be precise. Born in the 16th century with a condition called anageria which causes the body to age at about 1/15th of the rate of average humans. He has live through Elizabeth I’s Golden Age, the Age of Discovery, the Industrial Revolution - right into the 21st century and the novel centres on the isolation and fatigue caused by long, lonely years. During this time he has met several men and women with the same condition and even joined a society - the Albatross Society - which helps these individuals start new lives when their slow aging draws notice. On the fringes are rumours of a Berlin Institute on the hunt for Albas on whom to experiment…

As we join the story Hazard comes to the end of one of his designated eight-year periods in a single place and life. He chooses to return to London as a history teacher in the Tower Hamlets, a noble if misguided choice when he is struggling to keep a lid on centuries of memory. As the story progresses we follow Hazard as he begins his most recent period in London when familiar landmarks (or the lack thereof) have a tendency to spark flashbacks of his earlier years and allow Haig to build the story of his long life. Much of Hazard’s present life is spent ruminating on earlier years. Unfortunately, here is where it simply falls flat. Aside from his mother and his sixteenth-century wife (with whom he has a daughter) Hazard makes virtually no meaningful connections with other people. Rather than focusing on the pleasure and pain of real friendships, loves and losses that are such a vital part of any human life most of Hazards flashbacks revolve around tangential encounters with historical figures; Shakespeare, Captain Cook, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Apart from being star-struck and receiving some personal advantages through these acquaintances there is no emotional connection with any of them. When a real connection does emerge in the form of a new twenty-first century romance that utterly fails to convince, paper-thin and seemingly instantaneous.

The lack of emotional depth and wobbly historicity makes a good part of the novel drag. The structure is repetitive with Hazard giving brief (and oddly random) lessons to his featureless class which seem little more than a convenient and somewhat clunky device to segue into a related flashback to an earlier period of his life. When the action finally does pick up in the last few pages it is terribly predictable and the revelations about two central (and yet barely elaborated) characters fail to surprise or engage. I was left feeling utterly unmoved despite Haig’s compassionate and often prescient observations on history and humanity, there simply wasn’t enough substance to the rest of the story to imbue to instil these with the emotional resonance they deserve. I would really rather read Haig’s Twitter feed.

This was a great read. It felt fresh, it felt new - the premise drew me in, and I stayed hooked, as the saying goes, 'you had me at hello'.

Tom Hazard might look like a normal forty something, but he's old, unfeasibly old. He suffers from a condition that prevents, or slows down (a lot), his ageing. Instead of this allowing him to live life fearlessly and with abandon, the exact opposite has happened, in order to protect his secret he is insular, lonely and haunted by his past. He is also inextricably linked with The Albatross Society, a foundation that caters for the needs and security of Tom and other Alba's in exchange for certain 'tasks' completed in the name of further protecting the alba's secret.

Matt Haig has produced a quirky, thought provoking, absorbing novel that's full of heart. I loved it. Thanks to Netgalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

A really charming tale. Tom Hazard is old... REALLY old. Due to a rogue genetic mutation, he ages incredibly slowly at the rate of approximately 1 year for every 15 lived. This means that he has seen things, been places, met people down the centuries that make this a very evocative tour of world history. He also knows that he is dangerous to know. The elusive 'alba society' protect their members, people who share Tom's condition, from being discovered and Tom knows only too well that once people realise his secret it can cost dearly, even cost the lives of those he loves. He has to keep moving, never laying down roots, never falling in love. Tom had known true love once, but it was fleeting and he had to move on as 15th century suspicions and gossip circulated about him and endangered his family. The rule to live by now, is don't fall in love, but landing in present day London, Tom is captivated by French teacher Camille, who is sure she recognises him from somewhere. He has also spent centuries hunting for his daughter, Marion, who inherited his condition and the alba society keep promising they are getting closer, but can Tom trust them?

This is a really lovely tale that moves backwards and forwards through time and across the world. There is poetic licence at play here as Tom mixes with the main players of each time in history, but after all, this is a tale of a 400 year old man, so suspend your disbelief and just let yourself get swept away in this charming tale.

It is easy to see why How To Stop Time is being developed into a film, everything about the book screams that it is ideal for that purpose.
This is the first Matt Haig book I have read and I was pleasantly surprised. How To Stop Time was a real page turner and despite being very busy I found myself finishing it in a day.
Tom Hazard has a deadly secret.
Despite appearing to be a history teacher in his early 40s, Tom is actually several centuries older than that. He has a rare condition which means he ages much slower than other humans. He has seen some extraordinary things and also lived through some heartbreak.
Tom is finding it increasingly difficult to keep memories of the past at bay and he is in danger of breaking the cardinal rule: Don’t Fall In Love.
‘I am old.
That is the main thing to tell you. The thing you are least likely to believe. If you saw me you would probably think I was about Forty, but you would be very wrong.’
Tom was born more than 400 years earlier in March 1581 in a chateau in France. The condition he has develops around puberty and causes him to age only one year for every fifteen or so that pass. In addition it helps protect him from most viral and bacterial infections.
One of the main rules Tom lives by is this:
‘The first rule is that you don’t fall in love,’ he said. ‘There are other rules too, but that is the main one. No falling in love. No staying in love. No daydreaming of love. If you stick to this you will just about be ok.’
Tom receives this advice from a man named Hendrich. Hendrich has the same condition as Tom and has founded a group for others like him called The Albatross Society. Hendrich picked the name because at the time the Albatross was believed to have a long life-span. He calls himself and others like him ‘albas’ for short and offers them protection and new identities every eight years but in order to receive this he must carry out a task for Hendrich in between each new placement.
Hendrich says they need to follow the rule on falling in love to avoid falling prey to a shadowy company in Berlin that wants to use them for anti-ageing testing.
Tom has thought about leaving the Albatross society many times but has been searching for someone for centuries without any luck and knows that Hendrich will probably have better luck than him at finding her. That is what keeps him involved with this man who deep down he feels contempt for.
“That was the depressing thing about knowing other albas. You realised that we weren’t superheroes. We were just old. And that, in cases such as Hendrich, it didn’t really matter how many years or decades or centuries had passed, because you were always living within the parameters of your personality. No expanse of time or place could change that. You could never escape yourself.”
Tom’s latest identity sees him returning to London as a history teacher. Whilst there he fights to keep the past at bay and to stop himself from breaking Hendrich’s rule and falling in love.
Matt Haig takes the reader on a journey to times when people believed in witchcraft, a meeting with Shakespeare, and a journey to America. His writing really manages to bring the past to life.
How to Stop Time reminded me of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and also elements of The Green Mile. I enjoyed reading it and following Tom Hazard’s journey through time.

This is such a sad and poignant tale of a man trying to make sense of his much too long life. With echoes of Woolf's Orlando, the hero with many names and a baffling physiology finds himself threatened by humans who are terrified of someone who is "other". A story for and of our time, with chilling references to eugenics, the search for the answer to old age and a glorious exultation in the social history of the (mostly) the Western World, How to Stop Time is an entertaining story, idea and time travelogue. Hooray that Benedict Cumberbatch will star in the film of the book -- he will portray the hero's angst to perfection.

A long lived person struggles with his soul and love. Nicely written adventure/drama across time, for an audience new to the ideas. A quick and absorbing read.



spoiler follows:




Matt Haig should really not have alluded to that book about a long-lived vampire as I couldn't stop comparing the two after that point.

This is in the same time travelling genre as The Time Traveller's Wife (Niffeneger) , Highlander , TV's Quantum Leap or Benjamin Button.

Tom Hazzard was born in Renaissance France. Even in modern day London he only looks about 41- he has a hyperlongevity condition.

The story begins with Tom's mother , having fled to England with Tom into religious exile, being accused of witchcraft.
Running alongside, there is the story of modern day Tom who is about to start teaching history in a modern London secondary school and who is attracted to another teacher. However he is warned off falling in love by the darkly glittering Hendrich who is head of the society of "albas", other people who have the same condition as Tom. He disdainfully refers to mortals as mayflies.


We know Tom is on a quest which gives him a "reason to live" (see Haig's book of that title) to find his daughter who is also an "alba"., whom he hasn't seen since the 1600s.

There are several places and historical times depicted. The strongest sense of atmosphere was in the depiction of Elizabethan England with the (maybe ubiquitous) involvement with Shakespeare and The Globe.

The school scenes in modern day England were sketchy . Tom seems to just talk "at" his students . Where are the interactive whiteboards ? Also , there is the stereotypical teacher inspires a student who was "on the wrong path" subplot. Other times and places , Cook's voyages , Paris etc are even more briefly inserted.

This was a very readable book. I know it was saying a lot about time, our perception of time and the "self"

"I suppose the way I understand my life is as a kind of Russian doll, with different versions inside other versions, each one enclosing the other..."

I had most lately enjoyed Haig's children's Christmas books and was looking forward to this book. However I felt that Haig didn't quite achieve the "depth" that would have made this ( nevertheless enjoyable ) book a philosophical meditation on the natures of self and time. There are all the musings but it doesn't reach the complexity I think for which it was was aiming . T.S Eliot's Four Quartets famously recognises the inability of language to capture the elusive nature of time and maybe this is what happened to this book.

One of my "measuring sticks" by which I assess a book is will people be asking for this book in my bookshop in 2/3 years time? . For me the answer is probably not although I enjoyed this as an entertaining read. I suppose it ends nearer to Larkin's "what will remain of us is love" Larkin's "..what will survive of us is love" as it it is love that Tom discovers to be the most important "reason to live"

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

Tom Hazard is 439 years old. Yep, 439. He has a rare genetic condition that means he ages a lot slower than the average human, so despite his true years he still looks like he is in his 40s.

Straight away, I was hooked – I find this such a fascinating concept. Here we have a man who has been alive for thousands of years, he has lived through numerous historical events and adapted as the world has changed. Plot wise, there’s potentially a lot to pack in, but the selective years of Tom’s life that we delve into are so well done, it’s essentially a highly enjoyable romp through history – from Tom sailing with Captain Cook, to getting a job with Shakespeare and having a few drinks with F.Scott Fitzgerald – the appearance of these influential figures really does give a charming edge to the narrative.

Tom goes by several names throughout the book, as he has to change his identity to avoid his secret being revealed. This is all done through the Albatross Society, founded by a fellow long-lifer, Julian, the aim is to keep the ‘Albas’ (as they are known) out of the hands of scientists, who would just love to dissect them and see what makes them tick for so long. Every eight years the Albas must create a new identity and move to a new place. We meet Tom just as he embarks on one of these new identities (in the modern day), as an unassuming history teacher in London – a truly fitting profession being that he was a first hand witness to the events he’s teaching.

As well as a new identity every eight years, he is sent out on assignments to recruit others like him, while all the time looking for a specific person he is obsessed with finding.

Although living so long may sound like a wonderful thing, this book delves into the negatives too. How do you maintain relationships with people that age at a normal pace? How do you keep your sense of self when you have to change who you are every eight years?

I could have read so much more about Tom’s life, discovering what he got up to in all the years that were not mentioned, I was really engrossed in this story – thought-provoking and effortlessly written, I found this to be a unique and beautiful read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC. Published 6th July 2017.

As always, it is is Matt Haig's incredible empathy (and his skill at expressing that empathy) which leaps from every page of this astonishing book. The story is beautiful, mind-bending and truly engrossing, but it also conjures that wonderful feeling which brings me back to literature time and time again - it makes me feel less alone in the world.

I'm in the middle of university exams so not in a position to write a full review at the moment -- hopefully, I'll be able to do that over the summer. In the meantime, I've left a brief note on Goodreads (copied below) and will expand on it in future. :)

I enjoyed this, though in places the writing style was too choppy for my tastes (lots of short sentences). Then again, I'm a sucker for grumpy immortals struggling with self checkout machines and always will be. I also love the idea of somebody teaching history that they lived through. Maybe it's because I've written a couple of immortal characters, or because of my interest in obscure corners of history where just one or two eyewitness accounts would totally revolutionise our understanding of them (seriously, if I had a time machine I'd go straight to the Picts and check out what was actually going on), but there's something about that which catches my interest. I did feel somewhat caught out by Tom's reunion with his daughter, though; while the book was building up to it, it still seemed to come out of nowhere, and I felt it could've been expanded on a bit more.

Ever wanted more time? Wouldn't it be useful to live longer, learn more, have more experience, travel... How about 600-700 years?
This is the premise of Matt Haig's new book - some people, referred to as Albas, live for hundreds of years, and age imperceptibly. The story is narrated by Tom very much in the present day, despite being born in the 1500s. Tom is a member of The Albatross Society, led by mysterious millionaire Heinrich, who help and protect albas when they run into trouble. And Tom knows about trouble, with a mother put to death for being a witch, ostracised from his wife by rumour and gossip before she died of the Great Plague, and always searching for his daughter alba daughter Miranda.
The past haunts Tom, as he walks down streets he remembers them from years before, but the future and the possibility of finding Miranda is the only thing that keeps him from doing himself harm.
This has a lot to say about the present, about human nature, of the dangers of separating people because they are different, and how we can so easily be sucked into hatred and fear. There are moments when you fear he's got too preachy, that the book is a front for an essay. But on the whole, these moments can be forgiven because essentially it's also a book about love, about the spell it holds over us. I enjoyed it.

There's something about Matt Haig's writing that instantly appeals; it's vital without being convoluted, poetic without being pretentious, sentimental without being saccharine. How To Stop Time is no different: here we have a tale of heartache and hope, of the frailty of human existence, and of what it means to truly be alive.

Time is something that Tom Hazard (or Smith, or Winters, or Edward Cribs, or any other name he might have gone by) has plenty of. In over four hundred years, he's lived and run and lived again, always afraid of the future and plagued by his past and always pursued by the desperate longing to find his daughter, Marion. For over a century, he's been part of the underground Albatross Society. Headed by Hendrich, a man just like Tom - a man who ages far slower than everybody else and who is certain that this must be kept secret - who, in return for deeds done, arranges new lives once suspicion rises (as it always does), advises against personal attachments, and promises Tom that he will be reunited with Marion. After all, she is just like him, too. But does Hendrich really have Tom's best interests at heart? Can any of the fleeting lives Tom touches truly be trusted?

And there are plenty of those: from the fun to the repugnant to the enchanting, Matt Haig crafts people as deftly as he does an age. They are all dimensional, flawed, human, and they are all memorable. Each historical and geographical setting is rich and believable, each emotion beautifully wrought.

This big heart will come as no surprise if you are familiar with Matt Haig's work, yet will delight all the same. Written as a series of memories interlocking with present events, Tom's story is revealed through shifts in century and scene. Rather than confusing or disengaging, this is engrossing; the truth unfolds in an ever-swelling crescendo that explodes in the astonishing climax. The title itself is taken from Reasons To Stay Alive, but there are parallels beyond that alone: Tom's detachment and loneliness, his racing mind and heart, the relentlessness of his roaring thoughts are suggestive of struggles with mental health. Although he fears it, ultimately it is emotion that brings Tom alive; here we reach the crux of this book and even of human existence itself.

Like that title, and indeed, Matt's other work, the text is laced with hope. The secret to stopping time, it seems, is not to try to stop it at all, not to cling to the past or cower from the unknowable future, but simply to live. A most timely message in the digital age, and also an echo of Tom's brief mentor-of-sorts: to be or not to be? The solution is to be.

Were the question to read or not to read this book, the answer would always be to read.

There is a sense of poignancy in Matt Haig’s riveting new novel, How To Stop Time, that almost seems to gently seep from the pages and gather, like a fine mist, around you.
I’ll be honest and tell you that, at the moment, I’m quite a lazy reader (see sleep deprivation). I don’t want to work too hard for my entertainment - and reading a book where the story is one thing but you know that it’s clearly about something else, something much bigger, probably wouldn’t be my first choice.
In Matt's case, though? I’d be willing to do hard labour.
Not that this book feels like an especially difficult read; the story flows easily and the only thing hard about it is putting it down. His prose is beautiful and honest and while it feels wrong to say I enjoyed it when the story made my heart ache, I was charmed by it.
I can completely understand why the film rights were snapped up so quickly.
This is Matt’s first book for adults in four years. One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about his writing is that he not only seems to have an innate understanding of humanity but he can translate that to the page, for whatever audience he is writing for, in a way that is so vivid.
The story switches between past and present and, if I didn’t know better, I would think he had experienced those different historical periods in person because he made it so visual (has he just given himself away?)
I’m not going to say too much more because I think its one of those books where people will take different things from it – and I don’t want my experience to influence yours.
I will say that if you’re not already a fan of Matt Haig, you will be after reading How To Stop Time.

With thanks to Canongate Books (via NetGalley) for the ARC in return for my honest review.