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How to Stop Time

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How to Stop Time

By: Matt Haig
Narrated by: Mark Meadows
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About this listen

The Sunday Times top 10 best seller from the author of The Midnight Library and The Humans

HOW MANY LIFETIMES DOES IT TAKE TO LEARN HOW TO LIVE?

Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old history teacher, but he’s been alive for centuries. From Elizabethan England to Jazz-Age Paris, from New York to the South Seas, Tom has seen it all. As long as he keeps changing his identity, he can stay one step ahead of his past – and stay alive. The only thing he must not do is fall in love.

But what if the one thing he can't have just happens to be the one thing that might save him?

©2017 Matt Haig (P)2017 Canongate Contemporary Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction

Critic Reviews

"A rollicking time-hopping fantasy... How to Stop Time will provoke wonder and delight." (Observer)
"Hugely entertaining." (John Boyne, Irish Times)
"Outlandish...heartwarming, perceptive prose." (Anita Sethi, Daily Telegraph)
"A rollicking time-hopping fantasy... How to Stop Time will provoke wonder and delight." (Observer)
"Hugely entertaining." (John Boyne, Irish Times)
"Outlandish...heartwarming, perceptive prose." (Anita Sethi, Daily Telegraph)
All stars
Most relevant  
Like The Midnight Library, a reminder once again to grab hold of life and live it in the here and now. Can't wait to see how Benedict Cumberbatch interprets it into a motion picture!

Another wonderful Matt Haig work

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This was a profoundly good book to listen to. funny sad and thought provoking. loved it

profoundly good

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I love a good Matt Haig book. They always make you think "What If?" I really enjoyed this story off Tom Hazzard a 439 year old man, who looks like a 40 yr old, Tom's 400 years aren't all happy ones and the story switches between now and the past, Not sure if its historically correct but I did enjoy him talking to Shakespeare.

The narrator was excellent.

What If?

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The story was ok. It was profound at times, and occasionally a bit preaching

Good story overall, but predictable

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...but not as captivating as the midnight library. The narrator did a good job, but the story lagged.

Interesting concept

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A beautiful, articulate story. One enters a world where time shifts, the Present Moment is always on view. A taste of multiple journeys, where time and existence is exquisitely viewed in a grain of sand. A book to listen to again, cleverly narrated for all. A study of Being and Time.

Exceptional Movement in Time

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Didn’t want this to end! Beautifully written, beautifully read. This is a book I shall keep and listen to again. Thank you.

So enjoyable!

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It may benefit from tighter editing...it should have ended sooner than it did. Perhaps there was a contractual word count? But a good editor will tell an author when a storyline is finished. It's definitely not worthy of a relisten. Entirely forgettable. I'm glad I didn't pre purchase other books by the same author, based on the reviews submitted.

Over long

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Wasn’t really sure what to expect to start with but loved how he seamlessly interlinked the jumps between time, the story is a great reflection of time. I thoroughly enjoyed the story.

Was an excellent listen

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Matt Haig's imagination and gift of storytelling while "poking the bear" of thoughts in us all doesn't fail to unsettle. Readers are challenged by the philosophy of eternal life (or close) while skip hopping through the centuries. Offers a different, amusing perspective on historical heroes, and tragedies, while nudging us to grapple with the concept of human im/mortality.

Time Travel as the Effective Playground

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