Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he’s been alive for centuries. From Elizabethan England to Jazz-Age Paris, from New York to the South Seas, Tom has seen a lot, and now he craves an ordinary life.
Always changing his identity to stay alive, Tom has the perfect cover – working as a history teacher at a London comprehensive. Here he can teach kid about wars and witch hunts as if he’d never witnessed them first hand. He can try and tame the past that is fast catching up with him. The only thing Tom must not do is fall in love.
God I loved this book so much. I was hooked from the first page and I knew instantly that it’d become a favourite. I’d leave the review at that if I could and just add on that you definitely need to read it but that wouldn’t make for a substantial review!
The book skips between modern day and various time periods in Tom’s life from Elizabethan England to the Roaring Twenties and back to the witch trials of the 1600’s. Despite the constant jumps in time, it doesn’t confuse the narrative and flows nicely.
For centuries Tom has had very few objectives in life, find his daughter, don’t fall in love and change identity before people realise he isn’t aging. He’s learnt the hard way about love and not keeping himself safe and now he wants to find the daughter he last saw hundred of years ago. The daughter who is just like him. But he’s also under the control of Hendrich, the man who has created a society he says keeps other people like Tom safe.
I don’t quite know what to say to do this book justice, in my opinion I’d have liked it to be longer because I could’ve read about Tom forever but that’s not to say the novel wasn’t perfect because it was. You need to pick up this book for yourself and discover how great it is. There’s rumours that Benedict Cumberbatch is making and starring in the film adaptation of this book, part of me hopes it’s true but part of me hopes it does it justice.
If you only read one book this summer, make it How To Stop Time.
Rating: ★★★★★
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