Shelley Wood is the author of The Leap Year Gene of Kit McKinley. Her short fiction, creative non-fiction, columns, and travel-writing have appeared in a range of literary magazines and mainstream media, and her work as a medical journalist has won a range of international prizes. Her debut novel, The Quintland Sisters, about the world’s first identical quintuplets, was a #1 bestseller in Canada.
At The Nerd Daily Wood tagged five favorite "books that directly challenge or subvert our notions of regular time as a central theme or plot device." One title on the list:
How to Stop Time by Matt HaigRead about the other entries on the list.
I had been working for 10 months on The Leap Year Gene of Kit McKinley, about a little girl who ages one year for every four, when Haig’s novel waspublished, about a slow-ageing, 439-year-old man whose one rule is to never fall in love. I was crushed. Determined not to be unduly influenced, I waited until my own novel was finished, sold, and heading to the printers before delving into this book. To my relief, Haig’s tale proved very different from my own, even as it grappled with some similar themes: the fragile ties that bind, the dangers of being different, the risks we take in forming lasting connection. But Haig’s book steers mostly clear of medical explanations and follows a unified and propulsive plot arc that makes for a fast, fun read. I especially loved the situational comedy woven into the drama, provided largely through Tom’s sardonic perspective on mod-cons, his second-hand distrust of science, and some of his bumbled interactions with celebrated historical figures, including everyone from Shakespeare to F. Scott Fitzgerald.
How to Stop Time is among Martha Greengrass's top ten books for fans of Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.
--Marshal Zeringue
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