How to Stop Time

Starred review from November 13, 2017
Tom Hazard doesn’t age. Or, he does, but very, very slowly. He was born in France in 1581, but like other “albatrosses” (those who carry the burden of living forever), a century to him passes like a decade or less. In this enthralling quest through time, Haig (Reasons to Stay Alive) follows his protagonist through the Renaissance up to “now,” when Tom works as a history teacher in London. As Tom goes on various recruiting missions for the Albatross Society, the setting of the story moves from Shakespeare’s Globe to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Paris to Bisbee, Ariz., and other far reaches of the earth. The main rule of the Albatross Society is that, in order to stay protected from a group of scientists who want to study and confirm the existence of the albatrosses, an albatross cannot fall in love. And yet, all the while, Tom nurses a broken heart and searches for his long lost daughter, Marion, who is also an albatross. “Humans don’t learn from history” is one of the lessons Tom learns, and, despite everything he witnesses over the expansiveness of history, nothing can cure him of lovesickness. His persistence through the centuries shows us that the quality of time matters more than the quantity lived.

Mark Meadows is the expert narrator of this compelling audiobook. Tom Hazard looks 41 but has actually been alive for hundreds of years, due to a rare condition. Forced to move every eight years to avoid detection and unable to allow himself to love, Tom is haunted by losses in his past and finding it hard to engage in the present. Meadows does a fantastic job bringing to life all of the people Hazard interacts with over the centuries--from William Shakespeare to F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Captain Cook, and more. Tom's story unfolds both in the present day and in memories of the past as he's forced to decide which is more difficult--to live forever or to avoid truly living at all. K.S.M. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

July 1, 2018

Tom Hazard has a condition that's not in any official medical journal. Referred to in the 1890s as "anageria with a soft g," Tom--who was born in March 1581!--is still very much alive, currently working as a London schoolteacher, and appears to be about 40. Tom ages very slowly, and he's been privy to live history all those years, hanging out with Arthur Schopenhauer and William Shakespeare, speaking multiple languages, hopping the globe, and mastering around 30 instruments. He hides in plain sight, changing his entire life every eight years, enabled by the Albatross Society, which purports to keep him safe--but unattached. Living so long means repeatedly losing everyone he cares for, most mournfully, the one love of his life; the only thing keeping him going is searching for their daughter to whom he's passed on his anageric genes. Narrator Mark Meadows animates Haig's (The Humans) timeless protagonist with patient, crisp British English, with the occasional stumbles when he crosses oceans (an Arizona cowboy, he isn't!). VERDICT With increasing demand guaranteed since the announcement of a Benedict Cumberbatch-graced film adaptation, libraries should prepare to offer multiple formats. ["Aficionados of time travel fiction...will be drawn to this haunting tale. Haig adds depth to the genre with his rich depiction of one man's reaction as he learns to cope, flourish, and accept his lot in life": LJ 1/18 review of the Viking hc.]--Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC

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