The Time Traveler's Wife

The Time Traveler's Wife is based 2003 novel by Audrey Niffenegger. It is an unconventional love story that centers on a man with a strange genetic disorder that causes him to unpredictably time travel, and his wife, an artist who has to cope with his frequent absences and dangerous experiences.

The novel tells the story of Henry DeTamble (born 1963), a librarian in Chicago, and his wife, Clare Abshire (born 1971), an artist from a wealthy family who makes paper sculptures. Henry has a rare genetic disorder, which comes to be known as Chrono-Displacement during his lifetime that causes him to involuntarily travel through time.

When 20-year-old Clare meets 28-year-old Henry at the Newberry Library in 1991, he has never seen her before, although she has known him most of her life. Clare's past is still in Henry's future. Henry begins to experience the events in Clare's childhood at the same time that he experiences life with the adult Clare in the present. In the novel, the future cannot be changed, and many tragic events are foreshadowed in the past.

Starring: Rachel McAdams, Eric Bana, Ron Livingston, Jane McLean

Release Date: August 14th, 2009 (wide)

Book Rating




"A powerfully original love story." -- People

"Tremendous grace and imagination . . . A love story without softness or flinchiing." -- The Washington Post Book World

"[A] time-travel love story par excellence. . . . [A] soaring celebration of thhe victory of love over time." -- Chicago Tribune

Spirited . . . Niffenegger plays ingeniously in her temporal hall of mirrors." -- The New Yorker