From the author who’s inspired millions worldwide with books like Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven comes his most imaginative novel yet, The Time Keeper–a compelling fable about the first man on earth to count the hours.
The man who became Father Time.
In Mitch Albom’s newest work of fiction, the inventor of the world’s first clock is punished for trying to measure God’s greatest gift. He is banished to a cave for centuries and forced to listen to the voices of all who come after him seeking more days, more years. Eventually, with his soul nearly broken, Father Time is granted his freedom, along with a magical hourglass and a mission: a chance to redeem himself by teaching two earthly people the true meaning of time.
He returns to our world–now dominated by the hour-counting he so innocently began–and commences a journey with two unlikely partners: one a teenage girl who is about to give up on life, the other a wealthy old businessman who wants to live forever. To save himself, he must save them both. And stop the world to do so.
Told in Albom’s signature spare, evocative prose, this remarkably original tale will inspire readers everywhere to reconsider their own notions of time, how they spend it and how precious it truly is.
About Mitch Albom
An internationally renowned best-selling author of nine books, Mitch Albom is a journalist, screenwriter, playwright, radio and television broadcaster and musician.
Editorial Review
Dava Sobel and Longitude be damned, God doesn’t like people who measure things. Six thousand–odd years ago—is the date a nod to Archbishop Ussher and his proto-creationism?—a fine young fellow named Dor invents the world’s first clock and is banished to a cave for the affront, since only the deity is supposed to be concerned with such things, it being the days before hourly wage work and lawyers who bill in 15-minute increments. Dor now sits in a cave, “listening to something. Voices. Endless voices.” And what do you suppose those voices want? Yup, time. More of it. Endless time. Or at least a year or two. Writing in his customary staccato (“But Father Time is real. And, in truth, he cannot age.”), Albom gives Dor a chance to redeem himself by instructing two hapless earthlings—a man dying of cancer, a teenage girl in danger of dying by her own hand—in the meaning of life. The Little Prince it ain’t: Albom seems to have taken the template for his novel from a corporate report, each page studded with boldfaced passages that would seem to signal something momentous; a person in a hurry could well read just those boldfaced passages and emerge with a pretty good idea of the storyline, which is plenty predictable in any event. Still, there are a few useful takeaways, among them these: If you’re moribund, a pocket watch will cheer you right up; if you’re worried about the prospect of imminent demise, then remember that, as the old dude who cometh from God’s side sayeth, immortality “is not a gift.” – Kirkus Reviews
Book World: ‘The Time Keeper,’ by Mitch Albom, is a waste of time itself
The Washington Post Book Review – September 11, 2012 (Excerpt)
No doubt Mitch Albom is a busy guy. The beloved author of “Tuesdays With Morrie” is also a Detroit-based columnist, radio host, playwright, songwriter and philanthropist. A schedule like that would make anyone think hard about the limits of time.
His new novel, “The Time Keeper,” is a fable about Dor, the inventor of the first clock.One of God’s helpers sentences Dor to 6,000 years of solitary confinement in a cave as a punishment for measuring time. (Fellow cubicle-workers: We’re doomed.) The Tower of Babel is also mixed up in this story, which, unfortunately, lacks the pathos and brevity of such tales as Aesop’s “The Ant and the Grasshopper.” At 224 pages, it’s about 180 too long for its plot.
Dor grew up in ancient Babylon, where he creates a water clock that allows him to calculate the hours. His childhood playmate Nim grows up to be a tyrant who wants to take over heaven. Generally, war-mongering despots, not gentle inventors, are the ones in need of locking up, but Albom chooses the narrative path less traveled. [Read the full article...]
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Vampire Valeria Trumaine must confront old demons and face new possibilities as she struggles to bring a rogue vampire to justice. Her best friend and powerful Sidhe princess, Irulan, joins the hunt. Valeria will find that Irulan’s motives for keeping her safe are not what she thinks. And soon she is faced with an undeniable attraction that makes her question everything she knew about herself. [Read More...]
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