As a wedding gift, Liz sent me a copy of Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife. For some unknown reason, possibly tied to my own discomfort with my own new title of “wife,” I was a little hesitant about the book.

Thankfully, I overcame my irrational concern and dove into the book while Andreas and I were camping in France. What a great story! The book takes the science fiction premise of a man who travels through time and makes it so straight-forward as to be fact. Henry De Tamble has Chrono Displacement Disorder, and it’s sort of like epilepsy, but with time travel. The author then twists this fact into a romance, following Henry and his relationship with Clare, his wife.

It’s an easy read, but suprisingly literary. Niffenegger dealves into concepts of patience, prophecy, and learning with your partner. Since Clare first meets Henry when she’s six and he’s 36, and he cares for her in many ways. But Henry doesn’t meet Clare until he’s 28 and she’s 20, so the tables turn and she cares for him as he struggles through his disease. This clever premise is a great way of exploring the ways in which partners take turns caring for each other, and the ways we relate to the people our partners used to be (and will become).

I finished the book and immediately handed it over to Andreas to read so that we could talk about it. I wasn’t at all surprised to see the “Book Club” questions in the back — this is a book that demands discussion.

There were some aspects of the characters that I pushed against a bit … Clare’s stereotypically blueblood wealthy family, and the traditional male/female roles of her waiting, and him disappearing. But these were minor quibbles towards a truly engrossing, remarkle book. Recommended!