Him trying to be diagnosed by a medical professional for his condition. His depression through the roaring twenties. We also see as his spiral into the typical despair of living longer than those around you. Their story is one made for Hollywood, your stereotypical rom-com. In modern day London we watch as his life repeats itself and he begins to fall in love with Camille, a French teacher at his school. While initially wary of him, they end up falling in love and having a daughter. We see him fall in love with Rose, a fruit seller he meets after leaving his home town. The one thing the Society warned him not to do was fall in love…whoops…Īlternating between present day London and his past 400 years of life, we see the differences between Tom now and Tom then. There’s not much he has to be careful about, most people wouldn’t believe him if he started talking about the things he’s seen or the people he’s met. Yet, he holds a dangerous secret: he was born in 1581. The film rights to the book was acquired and s motion picture is on the process of production, starring Benedict Cumberbatch.Tom Hazard looks like your average 40-something history teacher. According to her, while “ 'The Humans” was warmhearted, sharply observed and often laugh-out-loud funny, funny enough to forgive Haig’s alien his regrettable fondness for fortune-cookie philosophy”, “leaving the reader craving some of the sharp-edged black humor that made “The Humans” such a delight.” Meanwhile, a review by English writer Clare Clark on The New York Times compared the book to Matt Haig’s previous book “The Humans”. On The Guardian, How to Stop Time was depicted as: “The energy and zip of this book are hard to resist”

NPR considered it as “a meditation on the tick and tock of time and mortality.” How to Stop Time received reviews from sources including: newspapers such as NPR, The Guardian, and other authors. Now, he just wants an ordinary life.Īs the story unfolds, Tom has to decide whether to remain stuck in the past, or finally begin living in the present, while constantly being under the supervision of the Albatross Society, the secretive group which claims to protect people like him. Tom was born in 1581 in France and has lived history alongside infamous historical characters such as Shakespeare, Captain Cook, and Fitzgerald. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but due to a rare condition, he has been alive for centuries. Tom Hazard is a high school history teacher who has just moved back to London. How to stop time is a fictional novel written by English writer Matt Haig and published in 2017.

How to stop time by matt haig summary