Book 3 - havo 4

                                                            Literature ‘How to stop time'

 

A)

Title: How to stop time

Author: Matt Haig

Edition: 1/1

Pages: 325

Theme: Love, secrets, novel, history

Perspective: Tom Hazard, (the I-narrator)

Place: London (England)

Time: Different century's

 

B)

It is about Tom Hazard, a man who is 41 years old. He's not just a normal middle aged man, because he has been alive for centuries! After a few years he has to move to another city, to hide his secret. Tom moves back to London to become a history-teacher. He just has to focus on his job, and then he's going to move away again. That's his plan. But he cannot fall in love! In this book you get to read a lot of flashbacks. Because of that you will find out he has a daughter, who has the same disease as Tom. But they lost eachother. In order to get reunited with his daughter, he works for an organisation (the owner has the same disease). At the same time he meets a woman, a french teacher. Will he fall in love with her too?

 

Some extra information about the main characters:

Tom Hazard is a 41-year-old history teacher who has a rare disease. He lives way longer than a normal person does. He doesn't age. He can only die because of a bullet. In this book he's always really sad.    

Camille is the french teacher Tom Hazard falls in love with.

Rose was Tom Hazards' wife. They had a daughter who has the same disease as Tom. Rose died at a young age.                          

Hendrich is the  'owner' of the company Tom works for. He helps Tom to live, but he made up one rule: 'Don't fall in love'.

C)

The book was good, but not my style. I am not that interested in history, but that came back in the book a lot. Athough (to me) it's not that interesting, the story however was original. I had never read something like this before. The fact that Tom Hazard had a child was a twist in the story. He had to leave his wife Rose and his daughter in the past due to safety, so he lost contact with his daughter. In this book, it's his goal to meet up with her. That was touching. Another twist in the story is that he falls in love with another woman, Camille. She ends up pregnant. The book itself was easy to read. Overall, I like the story of the book because it has a lot of unexpected twists. But the flashbacks didn't always interest me that much. Only the flashbacks about Rose and his daughter. So that was a weakness of the book.

-Esmee Vloet, H4E.