How to Stop Time

How to Stop Time is a 2017 novel by English author Matt Haig. It follows protagonist Tom Hazard through his 400-year life as he loses himself to fear and seeks purpose. This novel deals with themes concerning the inevitability of change and learning to find happiness. Benedict Cumberbatch has acquired the film rights to How to Stop Time. Haig’s other works include two memoirs, Notes on a Nervous Planet and Reasons to Stay Alive; six novels, including the popular The Midnight Library; and several children’s books. This study guide references the 2019 Penguin House paperback edition.

Plot Summary

Tom Hazard begins his first-person narrative by describing his condition. While he looks like an ordinary 40-year-old man, he has actually been alive for centuries. He was born in France on March 3, 1581. His condition prevents him from aging at a normal pace; he ages one year every 15 years or so. The general public is not ready for such knowledge; human superstition is too rampant. Those with the condition are protected by an organization that disposes of those who learn the truth. As gratitude for the Albatross Society’s protection, each member must perform the occasional assignment. These assignments usually involve recruiting others with the condition or disposing of threats. Within the first few pages, Tom is on such an assignment in Sri Lanka, but his target is already dead when he arrives.

The story is divided by time and place. Each section occurs in one setting and one timeframe, either in Tom’s present or his past. The flashback portions reveal Tom’s history from Elizabethan England to Golden Age Paris. He meets Shakespeare working as a lutist at the Globe. Later he drinks with F. Scott Fitzgerald in Paris, where he plays piano at a hotel restaurant. Tom frequently remembers his mother’s death at the hands of witchfinders and his forced separation from his wife and daughter. Every few years he leaves town and starts a new life with a new name, always worrying about the future and the consequences of being discovered. His condition hurts or kills everyone he loves. Therefore, he must keep himself unattached.

The main conflict, and the driving force behind Tom’s survival, is the search for his daughter Marion, who inherited his condition and is also on the run from discovery. Tom agrees to join the Albatross Society for the sole reason of using their resources to find her. Hendrich, founder and leader of the society, promises to find her and reunite them, but as the story progresses, Tom is still no closer to finding her. Hendrich fuels Tom’s fears of witchfinders and their modern equivalent, bio-scientists. He constantly reminds Tom of a German institute that knows about them and experiments on the ones they catch. Superstition, no matter the time period, always leads to them being hunted, cast out, or locked up.

Tom’s present-day storyline follows his adjustment to modern London as a history teacher. He struggles to engage his students as he battles the headaches caused by flashbacks that occur with each lesson. In spite of all this, he falls in love with the French teacher Camille. Camille finds him fascinating and strives to solve the mystery that surrounds him. They grow close and discover Camille recognizes him from a photo of a 1920s pianist that hung in her former workplace. Unable to continue lying, Tom confides in her. Tom knows the society won’t let her live now that she knows about them, and he constantly worries about her while away on another assignment.

Hendrich requires Tom to bring in Omai, Tom’s old friend with the same condition. Omai ends up in Australia surfing the waves and drawing too much attention to himself. Tom must convince him to join the society and come under their protection. Omai refuses. He is tired of the lies and just wants to be himself. Tom knows that Hendrich won’t let him be free on his own. Omai doesn’t fear witchfinders and scientists like Hendrich and Tom do; he sees fear as a prison. He encourages Tom to find his happiness and be free, too.

The sections become shorter as time speeds up, drawing to a final crescendo. The turning point occurs when Tom recognizes Hendrich as the villain. Marion resurfaces and confronts Tom for abandoning her as a child. Hendrich finds Marion but doesn’t tell Tom. Instead, he manipulates Marion into believing that Tom never wanted her and that’s why he left. Tom’s whole world implodes. He confronts Hendrich with the truth, but Marion is angrier. She shoots Hendrich as he pours gasoline on Omai’s house. He lights himself on fire and walks of a cliff into the ocean.

In the end, Omai keeps surfing the Australian waters; Tom returns to London and patches things up with Camille; Marion visits Tom but finds peace and quiet away from the city. After 400 years, Tom finally finds happiness in the present and lives in the moment. He can’t fear and worry about the future. Change is inevitable.