The Time Traveler's Wife

Imagine that you could travel back in time. With the blink of an eye, you’d be gone from today and back into the days when Barbie’s were on every little girl’s shelf and all the young boys had cooties. Maybe you could have a second chance. Maybe you could change something in your past that you weren’t too fond of. Or maybe you couldn’t control when you time traveled. What if you relived your past over and over again? What if you couldn't stop it from happening? Would you want to leave your loved ones behind?

In Audrey Niffenegger’s book, The Time Traveler’s Wife, the man of Clare Abshire’s dreams is, in fact, a time traveler.

While visiting the Newberry Library, Clare stumbles upon someone she never thought she’d find in a library: Henry DeTamble. She loved him more than life itself and knew he felt the same, but here, standing in front of her, he had no idea who she was. In the present he is 28, and she is 20, but the present Henry has yet to meet his loving Clare.

Clare first meets Henry in a meadow. She is 6 years old, while he is 36. She colors and hums to herself, oblivious to his presence, until she hears someone humming along with her. Thinking it’s her pesky brother, Clare throws her shoe into the woods toward the sound. The voice she hears is not her brother, and she becomes frightened. Henry tells her not to be afraid, and when he uses Clare’s name she’s startled by how he knows her. Instead of running away from this stranger, like a normal 6 year old should, Clare is intrigued by this new time-traveling friend.

Henry continues to visit Clare in the meadow. She even hides a box full of clothes near the woods where he always appears, since he can’t take any belongings with him when he time travels. While Clare wants to know more about the future, Henry only tells her very little. She finds out that in the future, Henry is married and she becomes jealous because, even though she is still a young child, she has become very fond of him.

As Clare becomes older, Henry visits less and less. He stays in the present more with the future Clare. He can’t control when he time travels and where to. It always just happens, and it’s never very pleasant unless he time travels to wherever his sweet Clare is.

While Henry is gone, Clare finds it very difficult to be without him. Although she has many secret rendezvous with him when he is with her, her friends and family begin to wonder why she doesn’t date any boys in school. Clare knows that she can’t tell them the truth, but keeping the secret of Henry only strengthens the love she has for him.

And now, in the present, she has found her Henry again.

The Time Traveler’s Wife is a miraculous novel of love through the ages of time. This novel explores the depth of love, trust, and patience as Henry and Clare battle through the years of his appearing and reappearing. This book and movie will definitely lift its readers’ spirits, make them laugh, swoon, and sometimes even cry. There is no other tale like the one of Henry DeTamble and Clare Abshire. Travel back and forth through time in this one-of-a-kind love story.