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The Thief of Time, by John Boyne
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John Boyne has become internationally known for his acclaimed novels Crippen and the bestselling The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Now, for the first time in the United States, comes the book that started the career of the author that the Irish Examiner calls "one of the best and original of the new generation of Irish writers."
It is 1758 and Matthieu Zela is fleeing Paris after witnessing the murder of his mother and his stepfather's execution. Matthieu's life is characterized by one extraordinary fact: before the eighteenth century ends, he discovers that his body has stopped ageing. At the end of the twentieth century and the ripe old age of 256 he is suddenly forced to answer an uncomfortable question: what is the worth of immortality without love?
In this carefully crafted novel, John Boyne juxtaposes history and the buzz of the modern world, weaving together portraits of 1920s Hollywood, the Great Exhibition of 1851, the French Revolution, the Wall Street Crash, and other landmark events into one man's story of murder, love, and redemption.
- Sales Rank: #2173147 in Books
- Published on: 2008-01-22
- Released on: 2008-01-22
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x .86" w x 5.50" l,
- Binding: Paperback
- 384 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Published in the U.K. before his hits Crippen and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, this novel sails similarly historical currents with mixed results. Matthieu Zela is 256 years old in 1999, but doesn't look a day over 50. (Bafflingly—to himself, too—he simply stopped aging.) Loquacious Matthieu crisscrosses the centuries with wry, autobiographical narration, moving from his current incarnation as a satellite TV entrepreneur in London to his coming-of-age in the 1750s, when he leaves Paris for England with his young half-brother Tomas in tow and meets his one true love, Dominique Sauvet. Matthieu's one deep regret, however, isn't romance-related: of the 10 generations of Thomases descended from his brother, each has had his life cut short, "either by his own stupidity or by the machinations of the times." Matthieu's current nephew, Tommy, a wildly popular soap opera star, is a heroin addict and not long for this world. Matthieu vows to prevent his too-early demise. In between, Matthieu shares too predictable highlights from his brushes with world events (the French Revolution, the 1929 stock market crash, etc.) and famous people (Pope Pius IX, Charlie Chaplin, the Rosenbergs). The picaresque nature of this hopscotch through history's hot spots suits Boyne's big-canvas talent, but Matthieu, in his unexplained immortality, is more like a storytelling device than a fully realized character. This novel is not a follow-up but a practice run. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Akin to Dorian Gray (but without the debauched lifestyle), Matthieu Zela is over 250 years old but still looks like a man in his late 40s. Born in Paris in 1743, Matthieu is orphaned as a teenager and sails to England with his half-brother Tomas--there he meets his one true love, the beautiful yet manipulative Dominique. After their affair ends in tragedy, he embarks on a colorful journey through the centuries, meeting up with such notables as Pope Pius IX, Robespierre, Charlie Chaplin, Herbert Hoover, and the Rosenbergs. All the while, he watches over each successive generation of his half-brother's descendents--all male, all with some variant of the name Thomas, and all sadly dying at a young age (but not before begetting an heir). He never bewails his long-lived condition like some dissolute character out of an Anne Rice novel, but enjoys life and, in his words, leads a "constructive existence." This lively historical saga (with a touch of the fantastic--the reason for Matthieu's longevity is never explored) is undyingly recommended. Michael Gannon
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
“The Thief of Time is a learned and at times provocative read.” ―America magazine
“This lively historical saga . . . is undyingly recommended.” ―Booklist
“Boyne is creative and entertaining, particularly as he develops his characters.” ―Library Journal
“Extraordinary.… The various strands of the story are resolved with a stylish twist and genuine warmth.” ―The Sunday Express
“A delightful epic, filled with twists and treachery, and vividly told.” ―The Herald
“A minor masterpiece of organisation and historical sampling.” ―Time Out
“Boyne is a skilful storyteller… The novel is superbly constructed.” ―Sunday Tribune
Most helpful customer reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Unique Points of View
By Rich Stoehr
"And I am not one of these long-living fictional characters who prays for death as a release from the captivity of eternal life; not for me the endless whining and wailing of the undead."
With these words, written on the first few pages of his novel "The Thief of Time," John Boyne pretty much sold me on the central idea of the book: a man who is over 250 years old but looks like a man in his late 40's or early 50's, and who has looked essentially the same for about 200 years.
Matthieu Zela, the long-lived main character, has lived a long time and seen much change in his life. I found the perspective he had on his apparent immortality quite refreshing -- he does not question it and he does not curse it. He simply accepts it as part of his life and lives...really lives. In his time he experiences the French Revolution, the Great Exhibition, the Great Depression, the rise of Hollywood, war, marriage, love, and death. So much death, all around him...but not for him.
The strength of the book comes from its ability to capture uniquely all the different time periods experienced and convince us that they are all seen through the eyes of this one singular character. Bouncing back and forth to different places in the past to modern day and back to the past again, Boyne tells several stories in parallel, and we slowly come to learn about the central events in Matthieu's life that changed him most dramatically, including the loss of the first true love he would ever know. Each thread of story is skillfully handled, coming together at last in a satisfying ending that explains only just enough, and still leaves much up to the imagination of the reader.
"The Thief of Time" is ambitious in its way, depending on the fact that the reader will be interested enough in the story to not question too much the whys and wherefores of it -- that they, as Matthieu himself does, will simply accept it as presented and enjoy it for what it is...an entertaining tale of a life, skillfully told. If there is a lesson to be learned from this book, it is that not everything has to be fully understood to be appreciated. Some experiences are enough in themselves. This book is one of them.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Publisher's Weekly review says it best
By C.J.
In their review shown above the comment is made that the central character is "more like a story telling device than a fully realized character". The novel is really a grouping of chapters that skip back and forth through time, with the main focus on his early life before he stopped aging centuries ago, and then into the present day where he is a perpetually middle aged man. In between are stories that are for the most part unrelated to the other parts of the book. It's a bit like short stories imbedded in a novel. But I did not find them effective as short stories, nor did I gain any insight into the main character through these stories. The connecting thread is the fact that throughout his long life this never aging man has a young relative, beginning with his younger brother, always with the same name and always meeting a sad fate. This contrivance was unconvincing and confused. Did he have no other relatives? He had been married many times, wives who conveniently die young or others that we never are told about. Occasionally strong writing shows when he describes the character's early life, but fails to convince or even entertain when we go forward, and back again, then forward with stops here and there for a story that goes nowhere. I found the book unfulfilling as fantasy (which it never really tries to be despite the fantastical premise) and while occasionally effective and even entertaining as escapist melodrama, it just didn't work for me. I got through the whole thing but it took quite a while.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Entranced from page one
By Amazon Customer
Wonderfully gripping novel about the cost of immortality and the consequences of loving others. I started reading on the plane back from vacation and ended up walking through the airport with my nose buried in the book. Highly reccommend for those seeking a character study with vague undercurrents of philosophy.
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