The Time Keeper - Mitch Albom

★★★★★

Read : February 2014

"Banished for centuries, as punishment for trying to measure time, the inventor of the world's first clock is finally granted his freedom, along with a mission: a chance to redeem himself by teaching two people the true meaning of time.
He returns to our world and embarks on a journey with two unlikely partners: a teenage girl who is about to give up on life and a wealthy, ageing businessman who wants to live forever. To save himself, he must save them both."


The Time Keeper follows the stories of Sarah, a love-struck angsty teenager; Victor, a dying businessman who's not ready for his time to end; and Dor, the inventor of time itself. It is based on the myth of 'Father Time,' which Albom has modernised very well and made relevant and relateable.

He creates characters within 'The Time Keeper' that you can connect with and care for. Sarah, initially, comes across as a bit of a whiny teenager who thinks she has found the love of her life...but weren't we all like that at some point? That first love? The more of her story that I read, the more I understood how devastated she was feeling and what she was experiencing and the closer I felt to her.

Victor was a rather different kettle of fish. He comes across as a very held together, rather cold businessman who always has a plan, and a back-up plan, for anything and everything. As I read more about him and his childhood it started to become clear why he is the person he is and Victor becomes quite endearing, in his own way.

Dor was the character that fascinated me the most. Set before time began, I joined Dor as he begins to chart the moons and count his footsteps. He is obsessed with counting things and his inventions for measuring time, almost to a fault. As you read on you learn of his life trapped in a cave in solitude and as he becomes 'Father Time,' listening to all of the World's pleas for time in all shapes and forms until his journey into our world begins.

The story jumps quite frequently between characters and occasionally time frames and although it sounds like it should be rather confusing, it's very much the opposite. Albom uses bolded sentences to show a clear switch between characters and the beginning of a new moment. It's not something I've seen used very much but it is definitely effective and Albom uses it well throughout the novel. The book is also broken down into quite short chapters which makes it a really easy read and at times I found myself fighting to put the book down.

I have read a couple of Mitch Albom books in the past and I hadn't been overly impressed, so when my Mum passed me a copy of 'The Time Keeper' I wasn't very keen to start reading and was unsure what I would find within the binding. I was brilliantly surprised, Albom wrote fantastically and I really enjoyed the novel.

I became so involved and connected with Sarah, Victor and Dor that the ending, as a result, was a rather emotional one. There have been only a handful of books, if that, that have brought me to tears, and 'The Time Keeper' has just become one of them. I came away with a definite 'moral to the tale;' be grateful for the time that you have and live each moment as you would like without being too concerned by hours and minutes and seconds.

The Time Keeper was a truly brilliant read and has been added to my rather elusive 'favourite reads of all time' shelf. A definite recommendation to anyone and everyone.