The Thief of Time: A Novel

by John Boyne

Overview

John Boyne became internationally known for his acclaimed novels Crippen and the bestselling The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Now, for the first time in the US comes The Thief of Time, 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, The Thief of Time, 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312378042
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/22/2008
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	1,135,275
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.86(d)

About the Author

John Boyne is author of the adult novel Crippen as well as the New York Times and internationally bestselling children's novel The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. He has taught creative writing at the Irish Writers' Centre and at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom. In 2005, Crippen was nominated for the Sunday Independent Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year Award. Boyne has also been awarded the Curtis Brown Prize, shortlisted for a Hennessy Literary Award, and shortlisted for the Ottakar's Children's Book Prize and Italy's Paolo Ungari Literary Award for The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Boyne's work has been translated into twenty-one languages. He lives with his partner in Dublin.

Reading Group Guide

1.) The Thief of Time flashes back to Matthieu's past throughout the novel. What possible reasons could the author have had for using this structure? What effect did it have on your experience reading the book? Did it contribute to your connection with the main character or did it make you feel distanced because of the different settings?

2.) How did you feel about the way Matthieu handled his relationships with Tomas's descendants? Did you think that he should have maintained his pattern of acceptance for their expected deaths?

3.) Because of their behavior, did the nephews seem to get what they deserved? How much can we expect people to change the way they act?

4.) How does Dominique's character compare to the other women Matthieu gets involved with throughout his life? In what ways, if any, do you feel she affected his future relationships?

5.) Throughout the book events take place that bring into question the issue of morality. Discuss one of these events and explain whether or not you believed certain actions were justified due to the circumstances.

6.) What if you were immortal? Considering Matthieu's experiences, is immortality an enviable situation or one that is best avoided?

7.) In chapter ten Dominique tells Matthieu that, "You're as closed up as I am. You keep everything in. You don't offer me any more knowledge of yourself that I do to you" (Pg. 109). Would you as a reader agree with this quote? Do you feel that Matthieu's character maintains this attitude towards the people in his life later, using his agelessness as an excuse?

8.) How did the early chapters about Matthieu's coming of age and his past in Paris affect the way you related to his adult character? How might growing up in a previous century change your character.

9.) Were you in favor of Matthieu's resolution to try and save his nephew? If you had a choice between eternal life and the death of another person, what would you choose?

Editorial Reviews

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

From the Publisher

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 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

In this imaginative work, the author of Crippen presents the life of Matthieu Zela, who has lived for 256 years without aging. Matthieu's first-person narrative weaves together three distinct threads: his current life in 1999, his early years with first love Dominique, and poignant episodes in between. These episodes include the French Revolution (1789-99), the construction of England's Crystal Palace (1851), and the Wall Street Crash (1929). Each chapter is almost a short story in and of itself, which makes reading the novel an initially confusing experience. Having all the time in the world, Matthieu drifts through life, never getting close enough to anyone to tell his secret. He looks after a series of reckless nephews (and great-nephews) named Thomas (or Thom, or Tomas) who seem doomed to die young. Matthieu's tortured love affair with Dominique also resonates throughout the years, influencing his many marriages and relationships. Boyne is creative and entertaining, particularly as he develops his characters. Recommended for public libraries. [Library marketing campaign planned; Boyle's best-selling young adult novel about the Holocaust, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, has been optioned for film.-Ed.]-Laurel Bliss, Princeton Univ. Lib., NJ Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Boyne (Crippen, 2006, etc.) offers a historical fantasy about a 256-year-old man. Matthieu Zela is a fortunate man. He has discovered the secret of perpetual middle age, as Oscar Levant said of Zsa Zsa Gabor. Though never a father himself, he has lived through nine generations of nephews, each of whom, after fathering a son, has died in his 20s; Matthieu has been given their unused years. It's a silly idea, but it does allow Boyne to dip into history at will. Matthieu was born in Paris in 1743. After his stepfather murdered his mother and was executed, 15-year-old Matthieu left for England with his five-year-old half-brother Tomas. On the cross-Channel boat, he met 19-year-old Dominique, also fleeing France; the three became a family. Boyne moves back and forth among many time periods. There is Matthieu's coming-of-age year, 1760, and there is his present, 1999. In between, Boyne inserts several pieces of history, ranging from the 1793 Paris Terror to the Hollywood blacklist of the McCarthy period. The constant is narrator Matthieu, who makes money and connections with improbable ease, whether working for the pope in Rome as an arts administrator in 1847 or falling into a role as TV producer in 1940s Hollywood. Unfortunately, Boyne has no feeling for the past, and Matthieu's voice is bland, so that even the guillotining of his first nephew counts for little; like the many other violent incidents, it is told with a practiced glibness. Boyne does a little better with Matthieu's origins (Dominique's death provides a rare moment of genuine excitement) and the present, in which Matthieu is trying to save his drug-addicted nephew, the star of a BBC soap, from yet another early grave. It's atough assignment, but Matthieu pulls it off; once said nephew is set for a long life, Matthieu can settle into old age. A gimmick in search of a plot, and far duller than it should have been, given the material.

Kirkus Reviews