Hide this

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Loading...

The Time Traveler's Wife

by Audrey Niffenegger

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations
18,89365025 (4.26)587
(86) 2007(56) American(91) book club(124) Chicago(233) contemporary(72) contemporary fiction(130) family(59) fantasy(487) favorite(133) favorites(66) fiction(2,364) librarians(253) literature(74) love(381) love story(209) marriage(134) novel(277) own(154) read(359) relationships(124) romance(746) sci-fi(193) science fiction(446) sf(68) TBR(96) time(60) time travel(1,420) to read(58) unread(119)

Member recommendations

  1. sanxiyn recommends The Host by Stephenie Meyer, "If you enjoy love stories with SF devices."
  2. whitewavedarling recommends On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
  3. hyper7 recommends Replay by Ken Grimwood
  4. ladyperte recommends Somewhere In Time by Richard Matheson
  5. Liyanna recommends Het grote gemis by G. Musso
  6. emr093 recommends Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman, "If you are interested in various concepts of time, other than linear."
  7. amyreads recommends God-Shaped Hole by Tiffanie DeBartolo
  8. norabelle414 recommends Enchantment by Orson Scott Card
  9. norabelle414 recommends Love in The Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
  10. MissPip recommends Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, "Serious, contemporary literature of first rate caliber. Wearing a interesting mantle of science fiction, this alternative history of Britain relies on (see more) heart-breakingly real emotion and impeccable writing, rather than scientific cleverness, to entertain, endear, and allow us to empathize with these all-too-human characters."

(see all 13 recommendations)

Loading...
won't like will probably not like will probably like will like will love

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

English (636)  German (4)  Italian (3)  Swedish (2)  French (2)  Spanish (1)  Dutch (1)  Chinese, traditional (1)  All languages (650)
Showing 1-5 of 636 (next | show all)
Oh. My. God.

That was my first thought when I finally closed this book. This is one of the best works of recent adult fiction I have read. And while I may have slight objections or questions to parts, it is, as a whole, one of the best books of the decade (I say that having not read even close to most of the books written this decade - forgive me).

Audrey Niffenegger tells the love story between a man and a woman, Henry and Clare. This would be nothing new or exciting if it didn't have one key element: Henry is a time traveler. He will disappear at random and end up in a completely different place in a completely different time. This is how he meets Clare, when she is six years old and he is 36. Throughout Clare's childhood Henry is somewhat of a mythical creature. Always appearing, but never giving her details as to when he comes from or their future together. When she meets him in the present, he is only eight years older than her, and they begin their all-consuming love affair, accompanied by moments of anguish when they are separated by Henry's time traveling (which Niffenegger explains as a genetic disorder). Throughout, Henry is searching for a way to stop time traveling, to be kept firmly in the present with the ones he loves. But is that possible?

Niffenegger created a believable world with very human characters. I felt for Clare when she had no idea where Henry had gone or when he would be back. I felt for Henry when he was transported to unknown times and places, often finding himself in danger. And I felt for them both when they weren't sure if they would be able to have a baby due to Henry's genes. There is depth to the characters and, because of that, the originality of the story, and the flow of the writing, I am counting this among one of my favorite books.

5 out of 5 stars. This is a story I could read again and again, and it has made me appreciate what I have. Contemporary fiction rarely brings out such true, raw emotion, and I applaud Audrey Niffenegger and look forward to reading her second novel, Her Fearful Symmetry. ( )
  AmyElizabeth | Nov 5, 2009 |
I'm ashamed that I still find this book so good and totally devastating. Creepy nod to Nabokov though ... -- Ms. Lopez-Gerlach
  MHSLibrary | Nov 2, 2009 |
* NO SPOILERS WERE USED IN THE WRITING OF THIS REVIEW *

For me, the intellectual difference between watching a film and reading a book is that books can offer deeper insight into a story through language's rhythms and analogies, and often have the ability to be more mentally stimulating than films.

I specifically read books that will challenge my mind and avoid one-dimensional writing that seems to narrate visual stories, without offering linguistic depth.

This is where "The Time Traveler's Wife" disappointed - it reads like watching a movie.

Yes, the ending made me cry, but simply eliciting tears does not make a book great in my opinion - a story can be sappy and corny, and still make me cry. Unfortunately, there were no "a-ha!" moments here, not a single insight that stuck with me. This is junk food for the bookworm's soul, as far as I'm concerned. And while I'm at it, let me add a huge CHICK-LIT alert!

One of the rare cases in which I think the movie will be better than the book.
Read as a screenplay, however, it is brilliant! ( )
2 vote PrincessPaulina | Nov 1, 2009 |
I finished this book today and have not been able to stop thinking about it. The ending was so touching and emotional. I cannot remember the last time a book moved me to tears but this did, I was sobbing.
It took a little time to get into the story and the time travel appeared a little too unbelievable but the story soon wrapped itself around me. This is the best love story I have read for years and makes you appreciate the people yoou love in life. Hold them close and show your love everyday.
1 vote Blejaneyhre | Oct 31, 2009 |
This book was very disappointing for me, especially because it was highly recommended. I have to agree with one of the other reviewers in calling Niffenegger's writing self-indulgent. The theme of punk rock wore thin quickly, as it always seems to in any form. The characters who defined themselves by their affinity for the music and the city of Chicago quickly felt both elitist and one-dimensional to me. It came off more as caricature rather than real character development. Sure, the Aragon is an aging landmark, and a variety of cuisines are available at a moment's notice... but what does that mean, other than "aren't these characters cool and complex?"
I will definitely be passing on any other books by this author. ( )
3 vote hhthomas | Oct 31, 2009 |
Showing 1-5 of 636 (next | show all)
"The Time Traveler's Wife" can be an exasperating read, but as a love story it has its appeal: Refreshingly, the novel portrays long-term commitment as something lively and exuberant rather than dutiful and staid, evoking both the comforts it brings us and the tribulations we learn to live with.
 
Niffenegger, despite her moving, razor-edged prose, doesn't claim to be a romantic. She writes with the unflinching yet detached clarity of a war correspondent standing at the sidelines of an unfolding battle. She possesses a historian's eye for contextual detail. This is no romantic idyll.
added by Shortride | editUSA Today, Kathy Balog (Sep 24, 2003)
 
About halfway through Audrey Niffenegger's debut novel, The Time Traveler's Wife, you realize you're going to be devastated. You love the characters, you're deeply involved in their lives, you can sense tragedy coming and you know it's going to hurt. But there's no way you can stop reading... Niffenegger structures the novel clearly enough that the timelines never get tangled, and her writing is so strong you'd keep going even if you did get confused.
added by Shortride | editBookPage, Becky Ohlsen (Sep 1, 2003)
 
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
Clock time is our bank manager, tax collector, police inspector; this inner time is our wife. -- J. B. Priestly, Man and Time
Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
--Derek Walcott
Dedication
For Elizabeth Hillman Tamandl, May 20, 1915-December 18, 1986, and Norbert Charles Tamandl, February 11, 1915-May 23, 1957
First words
Clare: The library is cool and smells like carpet cleaner, although all I can see is marble.
Clare: It's hard being left behind. -- from the Prologue
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Canonical titleThe Time Traveler's Wife
Original publication date2003-09-17
People/CharactersHenry DeTamble, Clare DeTamble (nee Abshire), Alba DeTamble, Richard DeTamble, Mrs. Kim (Kimy), Alicia Abshire (show all 16)
Important placesChicago, Illinois, USA, Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois, USA, Evanston, Illinois, USA, South Haven, Michigan, USA
Awards and honorsAlex Award (2004), John W. Campbell Memorial Award Finalist (2005), British Book Award (Popular Fiction Award, 2006), Waterstones top 25 books of the last 25 years (2007, No 2), Pajiba's Best Books of the Generation (2007, No 06), Today Show Book Club selection (show all 14)
EpigraphClock time is our bank manager, tax collector, police inspector; this inner time is our wife. -- J. B. Priestly, Man and Time, Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit... (show all)
DedicationFor Elizabeth Hillman Tamandl, May 20, 1915-December 18, 1986, and Norbert Charles Tamandl, February 11, 1915-May 23, 1957
First wordsClare: The library is cool and smells like carpet cleaner, although all I can see is marble., Clare: It's hard being left behind. -- from the Prologue
Last words(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
BlurbersTurow, Scott
Book description

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 015602943X, Paperback)

A dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap, and it is Audrey Niffenegger's cinematic storytelling that makes the novel's unconventional chronology so vibrantly triumphant.

An enchanting debut and a spellbinding tale of fate and belief in the bonds of love, The Time Traveler's Wife is destined to captivate readers for years to come.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:11 -0400)

(see all 2 descriptions)

The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details.

Popular covers

 

Help/FAQs | About | Privacy/Terms | Blog | Contact | LibraryThing.com | APIs | WikiThing | Common Knowledge | 45,422,133 books!