Reading Room

My sister-in-law loaned me a book recently. It's a book that normally I wouldn't give a second look in the bookstore; it's a romance and I've never been interested in romance books. This one has an interesting twist, though.

It's called 'The Time Traveler's Wife' by Audrey Niffenegger. The male character in the book, Henry, periodically and uncontrollably, gets transported through time. He is in his 30's when on one of these trips to the past, he first meets his future wife (when she is just a child). He sees her many more times while she is growing up. He is always a different age when he sees her.

One of the early twists in the book is that she meets him in normal time when they are both in their 20's. The twist is, that while she has known him her whole life, at that time in his life he had yet to meet her. His first meeting with her wouldn't happen for him for a few more years.

It is things like that which make the book interesting. He has to decide how much to reveal to her about their future and always be guarded as to what he says. He is conflicted between wanting to steer things in a certain direction and wanting events to take their natural course. For a devoted fantasy fan like myself, who has read many other books involving time travel, this one takes a different approach. It really concentrates on the effect it has on individuals. I'm only about 100 pages in to the book so far but it has captured my interest. I'll definitely be passing it on to the wife, another fantasy fan.