How to Stop Time

The idea of a person aging excruciatingly slowly has a lot of potential. Matt Haig did a really good job using this idea to create an interesting story of Tom’s life through the centuries. However, I feel like it jumps between time periods too frequently. It kind of feels like a clip-show episode of a tv show, where the characters talk in the present for a moment before a flashback to another time. The ending also felt like it didn’t fit, almost like Haig wasn’t going to meet his deadline so he found a way to tie up loose ends quickly. Overall it was a good book though!

This concept was so intriguing and kept me engaged throughout the entire book. For something so farfetched, I was clear and understood exactly what the author was trying to convey.


There were just so many nuggets of wisdom....like the following quote from page 234: "Voids were empty of love but also pain. Emptiness was not without its advantages. You could move around in emptiness."

For a fictional tale about one man, it truly did get you thinking about life, time, worries, the future, and so much more.

I had read and quite lined “Midnight Library” so even though I’m not a si-fi/ fantasy reader, I read this book. It also explores an impossible ( is it?) condition. Tom is over 400 yrs old and the aging process for him is super slow. So he has experienced historic events like civil wars and met famous people such as Shakespeare. The mural dilemma that Tom faces is hiw to spend all this time. The novel includes a villain in Hendricks , himself a slow ager and an association called the Albatross Club which sends Tom to find others or if need be kill others. This aspect of “ How to Stop Time” was my least favourite part. I loved when Tom is remembering past experiences in 17thcentury England. More of that would have been nice. Anyways it’s a fun read.

I'm not quite sure what all the hype is about, but I enjoyed reading it. It's an easy read that does a good thing by making you stop and think every now and then.

I first encountered Matt Haig in The Midnight Library which proved to be an interesting premise where a character visited a library between life and death so she could "take out" so to speak a different version of her life, explore the road not taken.
This earlier novel of his also has a unique premise. The main character Tom Hazard is revealed to have lived for over four hundred years. Due to a genetic condition he ages on a scale of about 1 to every 15 years. Haig takes this opportunity to place the narrator in London during Shakespearean days, later sailing with Captain Cook to the Pacific Islands, then in Paris, chatting with F Scott and Zelda and finally teaching history to enlighten phone addicted teenagers. -( I mean who better to teach high school history)- The various historical adventures make for fun reading and ample opportunities for philosophical meandering, but the plot of the novel makes clear that this is not a fun life for the man whose mother was drowned for being a witch since her son did not age. He once had the love of his life and a child, but his condition always made it too dangerous for the ones he loved. So the solution is to never love. This is what he learns from a supposedly wise leader of a group called the albatross society who are the people with this condition who have to change life every eight years in order to escape capture from those who would want to harness this condition for scientific research. So in the current time, when faced with a possible new love, he has to wrestle with the beliefs of the albatross society or with his heart.

Fun read but I wouldn't say a big recommendation to others. In reading a bit about the author I would be interested in an earlier book of his called The Humans. Haig is very open about his struggles with mental health and his book Reasons to Stay Alive may also be of interest.
Lines
Forever, Emily Dickinson said, is composed of nows. But how do you inhabit the now you are in? How do you stop the ghosts of all the other nows from getting in? How, in short, do you live?

The first technology to lead to fake news wasn’t the internet, it was the printing press. Books solidified the superstition. Almost everybody believed in witches.

Do you know the way you can tell if a tightrope walker is any good?’ ‘How?’ ‘They’re still alive.’

‘You are not the only one with sorrows in this world. Don’t hoard them like they are precious. There is always plenty of them to go around.’

The great thing about being in your four hundreds is that you can get the measure of someone pretty quickly.

The lesson of history is that ignorance and superstition are things that can rise up, inside almost anyone, at any moment. And what starts as a doubt in a mind can swiftly become an act in the world.

as if Montaigne himself was also in the room. ‘“He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.

At times laugh out loud funny, this book deals with philosophical ideas relating to death and aging...[in progress]

A novel that seamlessly blends time travel, historical fiction, philosophy, and a hint of romance. Tom has lived for over 400 years. He isn’t a vampire, and he isn’t immortal. He just has a rare condition that allows him to age very, very slowly. In that time he has seen many things and has found ways to survive that aren’t always savoury. Will he rediscover his humanity before it is too late? How to Stop Time is a “read in one sitting” ode to life.

This was just ok. I like the idea of exploring how someone would deal with living for centuries. The characters were drawn well enough but I did not find the writing to be anything exceptional. Decent entertainment.

"To talk about memories is to live them a little."

Tom Hazard is a seemingly middle-aged man starting a new job as a secondary school history teacher in a London borough. However, due to an extremely rare condition, he does not age as humans usually do and has actually been alive several centuries.

Every eight years he must change his identity and location to avoid being exposed. The main rule of his life being not to get emotionally attached to any one life or one person because sooner or later he will have to move on.

The book is set mainly in the present but through a series of flashbacks Tom takes the reader on a journey through several centuries of British history taking in the witch trials, the plague, colonialism, Shakespeare and jazz along the way.

It turns out, he is not the only one with this condition and a society has been set up to help and protect people like him, and Tom is a fully paid up member. But Tom is tired of hiding and being alone. The question is, what will his breaking of the society's rules cost him?

At first the book seems to be just another immortal story with witch-hunters rather than vampires, but in reality its a love letter to life, how we should cherish every moment because you never know when everything will change and as such is moving and life affirming.

This is my first book by the author and I have to say despite a few minor quibbles, the repetition of how smelly London used to be being one, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had a good pace to it, the history was interesting without being too detailed and I felt that Haig showed a deft touch with the old heart strings. I will certainly be on the look out for more of his offerings.

Best for:
Fans of historical fiction. Those who enjoy a book that spans time.

In a nutshell:
Tom Hazard has been alive since the 1500s. He’s trying to find his daughter while staying below the radar of those who want to know more about his condition.

Worth quoting:
“The progress of humanity seemed to be measured in the distance we placed between ourselves and nature.”

“That’s the thing with time, isn’t it? It’s not all the same. Some days — some years — some decades — are empty. There is nothing to them. It’s just flat water. And then you come across a year, or even a day, or an afternoon. And it is everything. It is the whole thing.”

Why I chose it:
I enjoyed his book ‘The Midnight Library.’

What it left me feeling:
Contemplative

Review:
Tom Hazard has a condition. It’s a genetic one, where once he hit puberty his aging slowed dramatically. While he was born in the late 1500s, by the 2020s he’s only looking like he’s in his early 40s. This creates problems, as you can imagine - not quite the level of vampire, but still. After a few years (8, according to The Society, which watches over and helps people with Tom’s condition) they need to move on to avoid being caught. In the 1600s-1800s, the danger was death due to claims of witchcraft; by the 1900s the concern is more scientific interest.

Tom had a love once - Rose. And he had — possibly has — a daughter. She inherited his condition, but he hasn’t seen her since the early 1600s. Looking for her is the main thing that keeps him going (people with his condition can die from violent injury, but they aren’t susceptible to things like colds or the plague until much much later in their lives). He also is supported by The Society, and occasionally has to run errands for them, when people like him are discovered, The Society wants to bring them into their fold and keep them from going public. (The head of The Society reminds me a bit of Magneto.)

I enjoy stories like this one, because I think it’s fascinating to consider, not necessarily immortality (though that’s usually what allows for stories like this to be told), but living so long that one witnesses so much of history. We’ve been living through a whole lot of history these past few years, but can you imagine having lived through COVID-19, and the flu pandemic of 1918 … and the plague? Seeing the fires in California in the recent drought years, as well as the 1666 fire in London? How would that affect you? Especially where romantic and family connections are concerned. Unless you found someone with the same condition to love and who loved you, you’d just have to try to go through life not drawing attention to yourself. You could make friends for a few years, but then come up with an excuse to disappear. Not the hardest thing to do in the 1700s, but now? With cameras everywhere? With social media? How would that work?

Recommend to a Friend / Keep / Donate it / Toss it:
Donate it

Matt Haig's How to Stop Time has an interesting proposition: What if there were a medical condition where you would age much more slowly than usual, say 15 times more slowly? This is what this novel explores. The so-called albas or albatrosses hardly age at all compared to the so-called mayflies, that is people with a normal life expectancy. The condition, named anageria, allows the albas to live through many periods of history. It is because of that that protagonist Tom Hazard has known Shakespeare and James Cook, among others. Now, in the twenty-first century, he is a history teacher in London. As part of a society of albas Tom has to follow some rules for his own protection: He must not be famous, he must not stay in a place longer than eight years and he is not allowed to fall in love. It is especially this last rule that twenty-first century Tom starts to struggle with when he meets Camille, a fellow teacher at his school. The novel constantly switches between present day and Tom's historical past and shows how his past affects his present.

In addition to the concept of the novel, which I found highly interesting, I enjoyed the characters very much. Plus, Matt Haig's writing makes this novel a real page-turner as you want to learn more about Tom's journey. Highly recommendable. 5 stars.

There were good and no so good aspects to this book. Overall, I found it intriguing...as time travel in its various manifestations always is, for me. This book made me think about how near-immortality affects our perspectives and our life decisions; about how I would live knowing I would outlast everyone I cared about. I liked the main character's (Tom's) point of view as he seemed able to live and observe his life simultaneously. Guess you can do that when you're over 400 years old.

The lessons aren't earth shatteringly insightful: don't dwell too much on the unchangeable past or the unpredictable future; time doesn't heal anything unless you deal with what's bothering you.

The plot was less developed than I'd like. For example, Hendrick's motivations are not explained. Tom life goal is to find his daughter, but he doesn't spend much time looking for her. And the ending lacked the emotional depth stronger character development would have provided.

Still, a fun read that made me thinking about the nature of being mortal.

Oh, I really want to read one of Matt Haig's novels, but once this drifted into fantasy, I lost interest.

Narrator was promising: Mark Meadows

Tom is like 400 yrs old but he is not immortal he just ages very slow. There are others like him. You get to read about his backstory and that is very interesting. If you like history this part of the book is the best. BUT there really isn't much story. You read the backstory but then the novel doesn't know where to go from there.

I couldn’t disagree more with reviewers who have labeled Haig’s work contrived and riddled with gimmicky twists. I loved this book from start to finish. It has a creative theme, is written in a captivating way, provides insights into a number of intriguing historical periods and prods readers to think about aging, immortality and the passage of time. Kudos to Haig who is fast becoming one of my favorite contemporary authors. I’m sitting here trying to concoct a reason to award it 4 or 4 ½ stars instead of a perfect 5. Frankly, I can’t think of any.

I liked the idea, but there was a bit too much interaction with famous people from history. I realize I need to suspend disbelief for time travel books, but this was a bit too much improbability for my taste. The couple aspect toward the end didn't resonate with me much either.

An interesting concept and lots of insights into people and time.

Much better than I expected. A clever premise on longevity becomes a vehicle for love, loss, adventure and a ripping plot twist to wrap it all up. I loved it.

I enjoyed this book! It is easy and to read; the chapters are a decent length, and there is no confusion on where and when you are in the story. The chapters labeled and there are prominent transitions. The tempo of this book was great. This book even gave me some ideas on how to transition the time in my novel. This book pulled me in, and I set aside the other books I was reading because I wanted more. I even stayed up late (like 2 or 3 am) to finish this novel. I have not done that in a while and I am not a fast reader by far. I am an average.

The main character Tom is well rounded and easily loved. He still has some mystery left in him, but I love leaving characters like that. You learn his love and loss throughout the novel by flashbacks which helped move the story forward, not pull you out. You learn about how he got to where he is now both mentally and physically and what or who drove him to keep going. You learn a bit about his childhood, his love life, and his loss. People he comes across in his life and learns later what had happened. This book shows a side of depression and how someone can overcome it. He questions himself and his boss on why he is doing what someone else is telling him to do. He learns from a friend; he is not truly free like he thinks he is. As his friend says, he is in a mafia-like situation.

Other characters I think could have been rounded more. I think with how much Hendrich or the society was in this; I did not care much for this character or his society he created. How did he find out about the others of his kind? Why was he paranoid? I mean I understand some of it given how old he was, but for me, the paranoia felt deeper. I wanted to know or see more of Agnes. But she felt like a character that did not have to be in there. You take her out, and you would not notice any difference. I enjoyed learning about Grace and Rose. Grace was a little spitfire. It was nice to learn how Tom had met them from the beginning and until he left and came back much later. You had the closing.

I would have liked to have more of Tom’s daughter, Marion, as an adult. I did not feel the same closer as I did with her mother and aunt. Marion as a child was an interesting character and the way Tom held onto the coin, she gave him was one of the small many things that kept Tom going in life and wanting to find her. Unless I have missed the clues, I did not enjoy Marion popping up when she did. I think there should have been more like I have missed something but did not know what. Abraham, Tom’s dog, was an interesting representation of Tom himself. It was nice to see how Tom had to have this dog. The sense of connection.

Lastly, Camille. I liked the mystery of how she recognized Tom. The connection the two had together. You wanted to root for them to get together and you already knew they were. I liked Camille; I felt she could have been fleshed out a little more, but; I think what we got was enough. I felt like the connection the two had, and what Tom felt, was because of his love for Rose and his mother. Maybe Camille had the same aura and comfort.

Like I said. I very much enjoyed this book. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to have a fun and easy read. 

Sometimes you come across books with emotional meaning and theme tightly woven into the narrative, and this is one of them. Time is the enemy. Time is our friend. Maybe we don’t need to be told that (I see some reviews that seem to find this preachy), but I can’t help thinking we do (need reminding) in this modern world where we waste so much of it, and Matt Haig reminds us of what’s important superbly. The historical parts are vivid and highlight the stupidity of what we deem to be so important now. And I felt there was so much more to Tom’s life and experiences that we can alas only glimpse for the purpose of the story. The only flaw for me is I would have liked to have seen more page time spent between Tom and his modern day love interest. The book lacked the depth of love needed to make Tom want to live; his love for his daughter felt more real and a greater motivation, so if you’re looking for a hidden love story, it’s only vaguely there. Still, this is a superb book.

Didn't really work for me. Not entirely sure why although I'm always a bit queasy about individuals having genetic changes that separate them from the general population. As far as I understand, the human race is a single race with variation between individuals and in this book individuals are either mayflys or not. I kept reading anyway but can't recommend it.

Tom is a man who ages super slowly and so has lived centuries. He has become part of an organization that is supposed to protect him, but also constrains him to avoid attachment. Tom's been observing but not really living for a long time - but circumstances challenge him to be brave and start loving again. Interesting meditations on time and what gives meaning to life.

I really wanted to like this a lot, but some of it dragged and the end seemed rushed.

Its a good story and told well. However, it was a bit melodramatic.

3.5 Pleasant fairy-tale type story with a degree of harsh reality - that living "forever" is not all it's cracked up to be...Tom Hazard was born in 1581 and is still alive "today" in the 2000s a condition named anageria. But he has been many places and had many names in that span. Apparently living that long is dangerous - especially in certain eras when his slow aging was perceived as witchcraft - that caused the death of his mother when he was 18 (but looked 12). He came to the attention of the Albatross Society under the direction of Hendrich who is even older after about 100 years. The society brought him into contact with others like himself and also gave him guidelines to live by (never fall in love) and gave him various identities, job, and place to live so as to avoid suspicion over time. It also occasionally gave him assignments - to eliminate other albatrosses (albas) who were becoming too well known or were garnering too much unwanted attention from regular people (mayflies). Tom breaks the fall-in-love rule in the early 1600s when he meets Rose - a girl selling pippins at the market. Eventually they marry, but Tom outlives her and also brings danger to her when she ages and he doesn't. Together they have a daughter Marion, but Tom leaves the family when she is young to try to save them. He sees Rose later - on her plague deathbed and she lets him know Marion is like him. This starts a rest-of-his-life long search for her around the world. Supposedly Hendrich and the society are helping. In the present, Tom has returned to London, hoping to come across Marion and to be closer to where he was with Rose, though of course it is all different now. He is working as a high school history (!) teacher and starts to have feelings for another teacher, Camille who could be trouble or could be salvation. When Tom is asked to eliminate an old friend, Omai, things start to come to a head and the society's governance is called into question about how it controls members' lives. Some thoughtful reflections about time, aging, society, but also a little trite in that he meets Shakespeare, Captain Cook, the Fitzgeralds - and is right at some key historical moments. Definitely made me think, but also swept me along and entertained me.

I found this on my book shelf and randomly decided to read it. it is a story of time travel and a man who cannot die. While he looks like a 42 year old man, his rare condition renders him unable to die and to randomly age only a few years at a very slow pace.

He lives his life on the run, fearful he will be discovered.

Intriguing, I continued to read the story. The author described the various historical events in a descriptive way.

I liked the book, but don't think I can recommend it.

The book itself is quite well written. I just have questions about the format. The short chapters remind me a bit of James Patterson ez-read books. It really seems more like a Josephine Hart ("Damage") because it focuses more on character than plot. It's philosophical, so maybe the apt comparison is something like poetry. Getting to the essence.

It would appear that Amazon and Goodreads did not read this book when they placed it in the science fiction and time travel genres. The protagonist, Tom Hazard, of this novel is well over 400 years old having been born in Elizabethan England but looks only 41. This is because he has a rare genetic condition where he ages one year for others' 15 years. Other than this fact this book has no other science fiction or fantastical features. There is no technology involved which allows Tom to move backward or forward in time. He only moves forward in time as he ages. Based upon this premise, we are all time travelers!

Tom had already experienced a long life when his mother, accused of witchcraft, was executed and fell in love with Rose and had a daughter, Marion. He abandons his family in an attempt to protect them. His wife lives a normal life span while his daughter, lost to time, has his same condition. He is recruited by the Albatross Society, comprised of similar long life-span individuals, which has the necessary resources to fund its members beginning a new life every eight years. Membership includes certain rules which insist that its members not draw attention to themselves since anonymity protects all members. Another rule it to never fall in love with another person.

Tom has followed the rules; however, he is beginning to question whether or not he is truly living life. However, to live life is to live with some degree of vulnerability. Tom's yearnings is coming to the interest of the Albatross Society who will use any means to ensure they remain invisible to the majority of humanity.

This novel alternates between modern times and periods of his past. Tom's past vignettes includes interactions with Shakespeare and F. Scott Fitzgerald and glimpses of life in Elizabethan England, late 19th century NYC and early 20th century Paris. If you are looking for hard science fiction and time travel, you might want to skip this novel; however, if you enjoy well-developed characters and historical fiction, you might want to pick this one up.

How can a book where the main character lives through major historical events and manages to meet Shakespeare, Fitzgerald, Captain Cook, and others still manage to creep along and feel like nothing really transpires? Somehow Matt Haig’s How to Stop Time makes it happen. To summarize, we have a main character, Tom, who ages very slowly due to genetic mutation that a small number of people on earth carry. The novel flashes back and forth between the present and various past events in his life complicated by the secret society of people like Tom that he gets involved in. There is nothing wrong with this book; the writing is fine, the story interesting, the main character actually feels fleshed out in a relatively believable way even though the premise is all fantasy. It just did not come together for me. It sounds ridiculous to say that too much of a fantasy’s plot is unbelievable and contrived, but there it is--I’m saying it. The smaller pieces that we need to accept in the broader magical premise fell really flat--the romance, the influence of the Society, and the whole daughter scenario (I don’t want to give too much away to anyone who erroneously reads this book anyway). How to Stop Time is getting a lot of good press so there are obviously people out there who enjoyed it--I am just not one of them.

Look at her,' said Agnes, as we stood outside on the upper deck of the Etruria. 'Liberty Enlightening the World.'
It was my first sighting of the Statue of Liberty. Her right arm raising that torch high into the air. She was a copper colour back then, and shone, and looked most impressive. She glowed in the sun, as we got closer to the harbour. She seemed vast – epic and ancient – something on the scale of sphinxes and pyramids. I had only been alive since the world had become smaller, more modest again. But I looked at the New York skyline and felt like the world was dreaming bigger. Clearing its throat.

I like Matt Haig's books. They are easy reads (or listens if I borrow the audiobook from the library) but contain some interesting ideas.

"How to Stop Time" is the story of Tom Hazard, who was born in a French chateau in 1581, and developed normally until about the age of 12, when his rate of aging slowed to 1 year of apparent age for 15 years of chronological age. Until he was contacted by the Albatross Club in 1891, he had only met two people like himself (his daughter and a sailor from the South Seas) and heard of one other. Since then the Albatross Club has organised a new 'life' for him every 8 years, and he has just moved to London to start a job as a history teacher, apparently aged about 40.

It takes Tom well over 400 years to realise that the way to stop time is to live in the present.