The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) is a love story with a hugely inventive twist. Henry has a genetic disorder that causes him to travel back and forth in time, often to people and events that have significance in his life. It is thus that when Clare, as a young girl, meets Henry for the first time, he’s already married to her future self. Future Henry time travels to Clare over and over as she grows up. By the time Henry meets Clare for the first time in “real time,” he doesn’t yet know her, but she’s already known him her whole life. This all leads to interesting moments where each has memories of things that haven’t happened yet for the other. Some of the best moments (both funny and poignant) are when real time Henry “catches up,” through his time travels, to memories Clare has of him from her youth. As the story unfolds, we learn how these episodes of time travel, which Henry cannot predict or control impact both their lives and so thoroughly intertwine them. This leads to some interesting discussions about free will vs. predeterminism. Predeterminism is really the order of the day here, as Henry is unable to use his knowledge to change events of the past or the future.

There are questions here, and a few things that didn’t quite make sense or weren’t quite believable. But in a tale about time travel, it’s necessary to suspend disbelief anyway. The characters are not always likable and there were a few scenes and some crude language that did not sit well with me, but the story was nonetheless original and engrossing. I laughed and I cried, and I couldn’t put it down. Kent even accused me of skipping ahead because I plowed through it so fast!

I give this one an A+ for originality, B/B- for story and character development.