The Time Traveler's Wife

Description

Henry is a librarian with a genetic disorder that sends him unpredictably through time; Clare is the artist who becomes his wife. His involuntary journeys begin in childhood, triggered at times by stress and governed by destinations and durations he cannot choose. Each jump leaves him without possessions, forcing him to steal, pick locks, defend himself, and improvise until he returns. Henry meets Clare repeatedly during her childhood while he is already an adult, so their relationship develops across timelines that neither experiences in the same order. As he seeks medical and pharmaceutical ways to control his condition, the novel uses its science-fiction premise to examine a marriage shaped by waiting, foreknowledge, absence, and the ordinary desire for a shared present.

Themes