The Time Traveler’s Wife

The Time Traveler's Wife

The Time Traveler’s Wife is the debut novel by the American author Audrey Niffenegger. It is a love story about Henry, a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel unpredictably. The novel examines the themes of love, loss, and free will. A film version starring Rachel McAdams as Clare and Eric Bana as Henry was released in August 2009.

About The Time Traveler’s Wife in brief

Summary The Time Traveler's WifeThe Time Traveler’s Wife is the debut novel by the American author Audrey Niffenegger, published in 2003. It is a love story about Henry, a man, with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel unpredictably, and about Clare, his wife, who has to cope with his frequent absences and dangerous experiences of reappearing in odd places. The novel, which has been classified as both science fiction and romance, examines the themes of love, loss, and free will. In particular, the novel uses time travel to explore miscommunication and distance in relationships, while also investigating deeper existential questions. The book was published by MacAdamCage, a small publishing firm located in San Francisco, California. A film version starring Rachel McAdams as Clare and Eric Bana as Henry was released in August 2009. As of March 2009, the book has sold nearly 2. 5 million copies in the United States and the United Kingdom. Many reviewers were impressed with Niffsenegger’s unique perspectives on time travel. Some praised her characterization of the couple, applauding their emotional depth; while others criticized her writing style as melodramatic and the plot as emotionally trite. Henry has a rare genetic disorder, which later comes to be known as Chrono-Impairment. Henry begins time traveling at the age of five, jumping forward and backward relative to his own timeline. When he vanishes, where he goes, and how long his trips will last are beyond his control.

Henry cannot take anything with him into the future or the past, which means that he always arrives naked and then struggles to find clothing, shelter, and food. He does amass a number of survival skills, including lock-picking, self-defense, and pickpocketing. Much of this he learns from older versions of himself. Once Henry and Clare’s timelines converge at the library—their first meeting in his chronology—Henry starts to travel to Clare’s childhood and adolescence in South Haven, Michigan, beginning in 1977 when she is only six years old. Henry travels to the future and meets his ten-year-old daughter on a school field trip. Unfortunately during this trip, he learns that Alba is five years old when he is 43, during what is to be his last year of life. Henry gives birth to a daughter named Alba as well but, unlike Henry, she has some control over her destinations when she travels. Henry wishes to save a fetus he is presumably passing on to the next generation. After six miscarriages, Henry has vasectomies and has a vasectomy. However a version of Henry later gives birth from the past visits Clare one night and they make love for the first time. They are then separated for two years until their meeting at the Newberry Library in 1991 at the beginning of the novel. During another visit, Henry inadvertently reveals that they will be married in the future. They eventually marry and have a son, Henry DeTamble.