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The concept of traveling through time is not portrayed by Audrey Niffeneger in the Time Traveler's Wife as some exciting, immortal ability. In contrast to other treatments of the same premise such as Dr Who for example it is rather viewed as something uncontrollable, scary, heart-rending and ultimately tragic.

Henry has time-traveled since the stress and self-preservation of being in a car-crash that killed his mother and should have killed him transports him a few minutes from the impact, a short distance from the crash, confused and naked. Naked? Yes, naked, for one of the inconvenient things about Henry's uncontrollable time-traveling is that he arrives where he travels to naked, and vulnerable.

I've had people tell me that the story is confusing and difficult to read and that is because Henry travels back and forward to meet himself at various parts of his life to help himself out or to explain things, or just tinker with history a little. To anyone finding this, I would say, focus, stick with it. It's just such a gripping roller-coaster of an existence that Henry has. It's worth trying to keep up with him.

And keep up with him is something Claire is wife attempts to do. Present day Henry meets his wife Claire when he's 27, and she's 22. He's never met her, and she's known him all her life. Why? Because, from the day Henry met the 22 year old Claire, he's been time-traveling back to her in the past to get to know her. Starting from when she's five and thinks he's a space-man or an angel to their last meeting on her 18th birthday when he cuts ties and says that they must wait until Claire finds him, where she knows not. He just assures her that they will, because it's happened.

Having both Claire and Henry's voice interspersed throughout the story magnifies the love story, because it is rare that you are experiencing both sides at the same time in a story, and as a piece of narration it's masterful.

You really feel their pain, as they go through mis-carriage, and seek a way of keeping Henry in the present or at least control it through their work with the doctor who becomes their friend. Also, unlike many novels, you can see the ultimately sad ending as inevitable throughout the book, and as much as you want it to be avoided, because of the nature of the book you know its already happened, and so is almost in the past.

It's so much more than a time-travel book, and its also no simple love story, both characters have depth and appeal and their love is very real and very sexy. It is impossible not to fall in love with both of them, and even on my third re-read, it still makes me cry.

Please do go out and get it, and persevere with the slightly wonky time-patterns. They are there for a reason and are supposed to make you feel a bit motion-sick I think. It's a wonderful, wonderful modern novel, both interesting and touching.

Learn more about this author, Lesley Rigg.
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