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How to Stop Time - Matt Haig



Description

HOW MANY LIFETIMES DOES IT TAKE TO LEARN HOW TO LIVE?
Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old history teacher, but he's been alive for centuries. From Elizabethan England to Jazz-Age Paris, from New York to the South Seas, Tom has seen it all. As long as he keeps changing his identity he can keep one step ahead of his past - and stay alive. The only thing he must not do is fall in love . . .


Review

If you've read my reviews before you will know I love time travel books. Now whilst this isn't strictly time travel, it's someone who has lived for a very long time, so it still felt a little like time travel and I loved it.

I also love social history and this book has it in oodles, as Tom recounts some of his life from years past and then in the present day he points out how things in London have changed since Tudor times. I've read before accounts of the witch hunts and the dunking stool, but this brought it to all too real life for me. Especially when Tom gets tracked down across the sea.

The book flip flops back and forth from present day Tom the history teacher to his life over the many centuries. At times the concept reminded me of the book One Hundred Years of Solitude. In many ways it is a book of one man just retelling his day to day life, if you can count meeting Shakespeare and Charlie Chaplin as normal.

There is also a little romance, a cute dog and a secret organisation - really this book has it all and I was enthralled by it. I really got into the book and and no point questioned how crazy it all was, I just went with it and enjoyed the ride. I loved it so much I read it in one day. 

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. Thanks to the library for lending me a copy!

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