How to Stop Time Paperback – 1 January 2022

A hugely enjoyable read,its a captivating book you will not be able to put down.A love story across the ages and for the ages about a man lost in time, the woman who could save him, and the lifetimes it can take to learn how to live...Nothing can beat thisastounding love story that lasts 400 years...Matt Haig takes on this challenge with gusto in How to Stop Time.This novel is a bighearted, wildly original story about losing and finding yourself, the inevitability of change, and how with enough time to learn, we just might find happiness, Matt has been gifted with a rare ability, which is to make even the ridiculously far fetched seem so believable.The story is about Tom Hazard who has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41year old, but owing to a rare condition, he’s been alive for centuries.For every 13 or 14 human years, he ages one year. But far from bringing him godlike pleasure, his condition places him at a mournful distance from the rest of humanity, doomed to see everyone he loves age and die.Tom Hazard serves as an excellent guide to the most recent 400-odd years of human history.Haig writes with a great deal of panache, and it’s clear that he’s having a lot of fun with his story.Tom has lived history performing with Shakespeare, exploring the high seas with Captain Cook, and sharing cocktails with Fitzgerald. Now, he just wants an ordinary life.So Tom moves back his to London, his old home, to become a high school history teacher,the perfect job for someone who has witnessed the city’s history first hand. Better yet, a captivating French teacher at his school seems fascinated by him. But the Albatross Society, the secretive group which protects people like Tom, has one rule: Never fall in love. As painful memories of his past and the erratic behavior of the Society’s watchful leader threaten to derail his new life and romance, the one thing he can’t have just happens to be the one thing that might save him. Tom will have to decide once and for all whether to remain stuck in the past, or finally begin living in the present.The idea of a character who lives for centuries, finding himself in the right place at the right time to interact with significant historical figures, has been used to examine the notion of time itself and our relationship to it, the fear of ageing, of death and, occasionally, the problems associated with not dying at all.the most interesting element of the book, however, is the philosophical one that Tom asks of himself: What is the point of living when you have no one to live for? As his loneliness continues, only the possibility of a relationship with another teacher and his search for his daughter keep him going, and when it seems that both will end in failure it’s easy to understand why he, to employ one of Haig’s earlier titles, might run out of reasons to stay alive.How to Stop Time is a worthy addition to the time travel canon,hugely entertaining,quietly funny and,at its best moments, contemplative and brooding.

How would your life be if you grow old at rate slower than much of population. This is a book to be read in one sitting.

One of the finest authors around, a must read for any book reader

Not a page turner yet..still reading..PS: need resilience if you are fighting depression.I really like Matt haig's writing. It's the sad truth amidst the story-telling that moves me the most.

How to stop time?The answer is as simple as this - we must choose to live - in the Present...in the Moment...in the Now!The book takes you on a journey through time. It contains pockets of emotions, that are difficult to explain. It's like those feelings that don't have a word in English to describe it.I liked the characters Rose and Omai, who help in shaping, or transforming the protagonist into who he is. The story is best for those who has lost someone they love to time. Like Omai says "People you love never die." This is one of my favorite lines from the book.I can see a sequel to this book. "How to move Time" featuring Marion ( the protagonist's badass daughter). She deserves a standalone novel.

Matt Haig is one author who has the ability to transport you into another time and place. And he does it so beautifully, it cannot be explained!This book is every bit a masterpiece with a wonderful story and an amazing way of narration. It will engross you to the extent that you will feel as if you know the characters and the story is unfolding in front of your own eyes. Each character is written so beautifully. Loved it!

Must read book

liked the concept though a bit melodramatic