• Author(s): Audrey Niffenegger
• ISBN: 9780156029438
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Release Date: May 27, 2004 (Reprint Edition)

Who doesn’t like the idea of traveling through time?  This book grabbed me because I have always thought that time travel would be quite the adventure.  In this book the character of Henry De Tamble is capable of time travel beacuse he was born with “Chrono Displacement Disorder.”  He cannot control when the traveling will happen, or where he will go.  What he does know is that he met the love of his life when she was 6 and he was in his 40’s!  The trouble is, when he meets her again and he is 28 and she is 20,  he does not remember her, but she remembers him!  Does this sound confusing?  It can be.

The book has alternating chapters written from Henry’s point of view and Clare’s point of view.  It is a definite fantasy story, but also a love story without the boundries of time and age.  On the surface they appear to be a normal couple (when they are both living in the present that is).  He’s a librarian and she is an artist, but they do have certain issues to work out.  Henry can leave the present without warning and Clare does not know where he has gone.  He usually does go to a place in time where she is, whether it’s in their past or in their future.

The concept for this book is very different.  I would encourage you to read it simply because I have never read anything like it before.  Imagine what would happen if we really did have this disorder.  For one, It would make the normal work day impossible because we would never know who would be in that day.  Also, it would be an adjustment–to say the least–to land somewhere different at any point during the day and be naked when you get there! (That’s what happens to Henry throughout the book!)  The possibilities are endless.  We might even know the day and the way in which we would die.  Does Henry know this?  You’ll have to read the book to find out.  I can’t give everything away!