Tom Hazard is a London school history teacher who has a knack for bringing the past to vivid life. It helps that he’s lived through many of the historical events he teaches. He suffers from a condition called anageria, that causes him to age slower than normal. Far from enjoying his longevity, Tom finds his condition isolating and, at times, dangerous. Prejudice and curiosity take various forms over his lifetime, from sixteenth-century witch hunts to the threat of becoming a guinea pig for scientific research. However, Tom is not the only sufferer of anageria, and the Albatross Society exists to protect people like him, though not without a price. To stay safe, he must move on to a new life every few years and avoid getting attached to people. But when he starts to fall in love, Tom begins to question what it means to live a full life.

The narrative jumps between past and present, as Tom remembers the defining moments of his long life. Matt Haig draws on different time periods in rich detail and revels in introducing historical figures – from Shakespeare to F. Scott Fitzgerald – into the story, even as Tom keeps himself to ‘the safe shadows of history’. Tom’s outsider status gives him a unique vantage point from which to view and reflect on what it means to be alive and human. There is humour in Tom’s comparisons between the quirks of the past and the present: people used to check their pocket watches as obsessively as they now check their smartphones. At times, the layering of historical details weighs down the story, but overall this is a lively and ultimately uplifting meditation on the importance of living in the present and forming meaningful connections.

Freya Howarth