Tom is a member of the Albatross Society. “All you can do with the past is carry it around, feeling its weight slowly increase, praying it never crushes you completely.” These headaches arise from the competing memories, the jumble of time, the stress of having lived many lives, yet just one. In addition to his loneliness and his encroaching depression, he suffers from debilitating headaches.

Because Tom has been around for SO long, he now finds himself wanting out.

They never stay in one place more than eight years because people would then question how they never seem to age… But they are not immortal, they do age, only much, much, much, slower than regular people. For people like him, ‘albas’ are always on the run. His daughter is like him, and because of this she has disappeared. His wife died of the plague in 17th century London. Because of him, his mother was deemed to be a witch and drowned. Tom has loved only three people in his very long life. Well, if that’s the case then Tom Hazard, the protagonist of “ How to stop time” is very wise indeed. He had spent the night eating the arm of the sofa but I don’t want to judge him. He has just begun in a position as a history teacher in a London school. Now he lives alone in a flat with just a rescue dog for company. He has seen many historic events, he has had many occupations, known countless people. The protagonist is alive today, but he was born in March of 1581. For that reason I enjoy time travel novels, any stories that feature people in time that is beyond or before their expected natural life span. How it seems to speed up sometimes, how other times it seems to drag… how it remains a mysterious commodity. But… one topic that ALWAYS intrigues me is TIME.

My personal reading choices seldom ever include fantasy or science fiction. Some might classify this as a fantasy novel, I really don’t. The only thing he must not do is fall in love. As long as he keeps changing his identity he can keep one step ahead of his past – and stay alive. From Elizabethan England to Jazz-Age Paris, from New York to the South Seas, Tom has seen it all. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old history teacher, but he’s been alive for centuries.

How to stop time matt haig summary