The Time Traveler's Wife
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For the upcoming film based on the novel starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, see The Time Traveler's Wife (film).
The Time Traveler's Wife
Author
Audrey Niffenegger
Country
United States
Language
English
Genre(s)
Romance, Science fiction,Tragedy
Publisher
MacAdam/Cage Publishing
Publication date
September 17, 2003
Media type
Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
Pages
519
ISBN
ISBN 0224071912
The Time Traveler's Wife (ISBN 0224071912) is a novel by Audrey Niffenegger. It is an unconventional love story that centers on a man with a strange genetic disorder that causes him to unpredictably time-travel and his wife, an artist, who has to cope with his frequent absences and dangerous experiences. In this book, unlike many other time travel stories, it is not possible to change the past or future.
Contents[hide]
1 Plot
2 Sales and critical response
3 Film adaptation
4 See also
5 Notes
6 External links
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[edit] Plot
The novel tells the story of Henry DeTamble (born 1963), a librarian at the Chicago Newberry Library, and his wife, Clare Abshire (born 1971), an artist from a wealthy family who makes paper sculptures. When 20-year-old Clare meets up with 28-year-old Henry in 1991, he has never seen her before, although she has known him most of her life. Clare's past is still in Henry's future. Henry begins to experience the events in Clare's childhood at the same time that he experiences life with the adult Clare in the present. In the novel, the future cannot be changed, and many tragic events are foreshadowed in the past.
Henry has a very rare genetic disorder known as Chrono-Displacement that causes him to involuntarily travel through time. He is unable to control when he leaves, where he goes, or how long his trip will last. His destinations are tied to his subconscious, as Henry most often travels to places he has visited or will eventually visit. Very often, Henry is taken back to the moment his mother dies in a car accident he survives, and is forced to relive the memory again and again. Certain things like stress can trigger time travel for Henry. It is described as being similar to epilepsy or a panic attack, though on brain imagery, his brain shows patterns similar to those who are schizophrenic. He uses running as a way of keeping calm and remaining in the present. But more importantly, he needs to be able to run fast to escape any unknown situations he could travel back (or forward) to at any given time.
Henry cannot take anything with him into the future or the past. Even fillings in his teeth are left behind. He always "arrives" naked and must work hard while "away" to find clothing, shelter, and food without getting beaten up or arrested. He amasses a number of survival skills including pickpocketing, lock-picking, and expert fighting skills to allow him to get by without the bare necessities. He learns many of these skills from older versions of himself, either when the older self is time-traveling into his own past, or when his older and younger selves' time-traveling coincides.
Henry time travels into Clare's childhood and adolescence many times, starting in 1977 when she is six years old. On one of his early visits, he dictates to her a list of the visits he will make to her; she writes these dates into a diary so she can expect his visits. As an adult, when all of the visits are through, she gives the list to him to memorize so that he will know them when he returns to her in her past. This is a paradox, since the knowledge of the dates did not actually come from anywhere, and it is not clear how the dates can be accurate unless Henry has subconscious control over his visits to Clare as a child. Clare told Henry, and Henry went back in time and told Clare. During one of Henry's visits, he inadvertently reveals that he and Clare will be married in the future. His last visit takes place on her eighteenth birthday in 1989 where Claire is made love to for the first time, and then they are separated for two years until they finally meet in real time for both of them.
Clare and Henry get married, but have trouble conceiving a child because of his genetic disorder. After five miscarriages, Henry gives up and has a vasectomy. Later, a past version of Henry travels to the future and makes love to Clare and she becomes pregnant and carries the child to term. They have a daughter named Alba, who is diagnosed with the same disorder. Before she is born, Henry travels to the future and meets Alba at ten years old. Alba reveals to Henry that he is to die when she is five years old.
Years later, Henry time-travels to Chicago on a very cold winter night, where he is unable to find shelter. He experiences hypothermia and develops frostbite. When Henry returns to his 'present', his feet must be amputated. The story has stressed that his ability to run is, for Henry, a vital survival skill, and it is not long before Henry time-travels into the middle of the Michigan woods during deer season and is fatally shot by Clare's brother. He returns to the present and dies in Clare’s arms.
Clare is devastated by Henry's passing, and feels unable to live her life without him. Although Alba sees him from time to time, he and Clare seem never to be able to see each other. She finds a letter from Henry describing an experience he had with her in her future, when she is an old woman. Henry doesn't want Clare to wait for him, but he wants her to know that they will see each other again and that love knows no boundaries and transcends time and death. Clare lives to old age, and is visited by Henry for a final time.
[edit] Sales and critical response
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (August 2007)
UK sales were boosted in 2005 when Richard & Judy included The Time Traveler's Wife in their Book Club.
[edit] Film adaptation
Main article: The Time Traveler's Wife (film)
New Line Cinema will develop a film adaptation of The Time Traveler's Wife. The adaptation will be directed by Robert Schwentke and will star Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams. Filming began in September 2007. [1] The film was originally due for release on June 6, 2008 but has now been put back to November 2008.
[edit] See also
The NBC TV show Journeyman, in which the main character displaces through time to alter other people's destinies.
The Girl in the Fireplace, a 2006 episode of the TV series Doctor Who, touches on the same idea of a time traveler visiting somebody at various points through their life (although in this case they are chronological meetings), and the relationship between them.
The Jacket, starring Adrien Brody and Keira Knightley, uses the same premise of a time traveler who falls in love with a woman he knew when she was a child.
Tom's Midnight Garden, a novel by Philippa Pearce uses a similar premise. At midnight (although when the communal clock strikes 13), a garden from the past appears and he meets with Hatty, whose age varies on each night. Ultimately though, the story is not one of romance.
If This Is Winnetka, You Must Be Judy (1974)by F. M . Busby visits similar themes, with a protagonist living his life out of order; his life intermittently intersecting that of his wives.
The Lost episode "The Constant" contains a similar theme of the transcending power of love through time travel.
[edit] Notes
^ Michael Fleming; Dave McNary. "New Line finds its cast on 'Time'", Variety, 2007-04-17. Retrieved on 2007-04-18.
[edit] External links
The Time Traveler's Wife at the Internet Movie Database
Audrey Niffenegger's official website
The Time Traveler's Wife Forum
Reader's Review on The Diane Rehm Show podcast
The Time Traveler’s Wife Reading Group Guide
Guardian (UK) review
Observer (UK) article on publication
Amazon.com reviews
Timelines created by reader Jack Humphrey
Amazon.co.uk reviews
The Times Book Review
The Time Traveler's Wife Forum
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