The Time Keeper

By: Mitch Albom

Narrated by: Dan Stevens

Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2012 Mitch Albom, Inc. (P)2012 Hyperion

worth it! *spoiler alert*

"carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero."
Sieze the day, trust not in tomorrow
Odes, Horace

A book embodying the essence of the commonly used phrase: "tempus fugit" commonly stated as "time flies." That's a phrase that has always bugged me actually... it's a bastardization of "fugit inreparabile tempus" from Virgil's Georgics... everybody knows Tempus fugit as time flies but even that translation would be wrong, it's actually time flees, and the actual quote translates: time flees irrevocably or time runs away in a way that is not able to be changed, reversed, or recovered.
I do truly like the play on correlation in this story as the bringer of time immortally locked away in a cave, just as Prometheus was imprisoned atop Kaukasos for bringing mankind fire... even keeping to the theme of daily torture, though with supplications for more of what the imprisoned man delivered rather than by the eagle Aetos Kaukasios chomping on the liver. (The Greeks viewed the liver or "hepar" to be literally the things we today use the heart figuratively to represent. Hepar being the origin of the currently used "hepatic system" )
Dor's talk with the old man about going to see the affect of the knowledge of time made me think of the allegory of Plato's Cave... the voices he previously heard being like Plato's prisoners observing shadows.
I figured that the Victor story line in this book would get to challenging the old adage: you can't take it with you when you go... sure enough it got to that section of the character arc.
I also like the subtext that time eternal is bound to a true love equally as eternally.
The imagery was well done with the symbols of a life's significant details being imprinted upon the grand control of time. A nod to the idea that in a lifetime of time it is a handful of rare moments that endure upon the face that time.
The ghost of Christmas future sort of scene where Dor tells Sarah “Love does not make you a fool.” felt like a bit of a forced attempt to nod to Shakespeare's Sonnet 116
Many sections of this book seem like they were intentionally stretched out for the purpose of lengthening the book but the distopian New World of Victor's future was well developed in a short section. This future world in itself felt like there could be a whole satisfying novel made within its setting that would be reminiscent of Brave New World By Aldous Huxley

"It is the hour of the pearl —the interval between day and night when time stops and examines itself."
John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

"Time with its multiple torments had returned to my existence"
Richard Matheson, What Dreams May Come

"And then, much as silence had conceived us, time destroyed us."
Shayne Silvers, Carnage

"Time is a created thing. To say 'I don’t have time' is to say 'I don’t want to.' "
Lao Tzu

"Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks 
Within his bending sickle's compass come; 
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, 
But bears it out even to the edge of doom."
Shakespeare, Sonnet 116

"This is how we go on: one day a time, one meal at a time, one pain at a time, one breath at a time. Dentists go on one root canal at a time; boat builders go on one hull at a time. If you write books, you go on one page at a time. We turn from all we know and all we fear. We study catalogues, watch football games, choose Sprint over AT&T. We count the birds in the sky and will not turn from the window when we hear the footsteps behind as something comes up the hall; we say yes, I agree that clouds often look like other things - fish and unicorns and men on horseback - but they are really only clouds. Even when the lightning flashes inside them we say they are only clouds and turn our attention to the next meal, the next pain, the next breath, the next page. This is how we go on." Stephen King - Bag of Bones

"Time, which changes people, does not alter the image we have of them."
Marcel Proust



"He is different.
And on this early page of man’s story, one different child can change the world.
Which is why God is watching him."
Mitch Albom, The Time Keeper

"Had he been wiser, he might have marveled at the beauty of the sunrise and given thanks for being able to witness it. But Dor was not focusing on the miracle of the day, only on measuring its length."
Mitch Albom, The Time Keeper

"As mankind grew obsessed with its hours, the sorrow of lost time became a permanent hole in the human heart. People fretted over missed chances, over inefficient days; they worried constantly about how long they would live, because counting life’s moments had led, inevitably, to counting them down."
Mitch Albom, The Time Keeper

“ 'Remember this always: There is a reason God limits man’s days.'
'What is the reason?'
'Finish your journey and you will know.' ”
(Memento Mori)

"A desperate heart will seduce the mind."

"Sometimes, when you are not getting the love you want, giving makes you think you will."

"the dread he felt in his time running out was being addressed the way he always addressed things: with methodical action."

"He wondered how it was fair that your dying should depend so much on when you were born."

"There were millions of other voices, but the pleas of a child find our ears differently, and Dor was moved by the simple request. Children so rarely ask to reverse time. Mostly they are in a hurry. They want a school bell to ring. A birthday to arrive."

"He did not know that the child who had asked for yesterday was now seeking to own tomorrow."

"But you grab a moment, or you let it pass.
He let it pass."

"A heart weighs more when it splits in two"

"Once, lovers on faraway shores sat by candlelight and dipped ink to parchment, writing words that could not be erased. They took an evening to compose their thoughts, maybe the next evening as well. When they mailed the letter, they wrote a name, a street, a city, and a country and they melted wax and sealed the envelope with a signet ring.
Sarah had never known a world like that. Speed now trumped the quality of words."
The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom

"Her divorced friends had made a pact not to leave each other alone on nights when loneliness had extra strength."

"And when hope is gone, time is punishment."

"When we are most alone is when we embrace another’s loneliness."

"But hurting ourselves to inflict pain on others is just another cry to be loved."

“Love does not make you a fool.”
" 'All that time with your wife not with you?'
'She was always with me,' he said."

"Time flies with you"

“ 'You had many more years,' he said.
“' didn’t want them.'
'But they wanted you. Time is not something you give back. The very next moment may be an answer to your prayer. To deny that is to deny the most important part of the future.'
'What’s that?'
'Hope.' ”

“Ends are for yesterdays, not tomorrows.”

"The silence seemed directed toward Victor personally."

"With endless time, nothing is special. With no loss or sacrifice, we can’t appreciate what we have.”

“ 'There is a reason God limits our days.'
'Why?'
'To make each one precious.' ”

"the tortured loneliness of a world without the familiar"

“When you are measuring life, you are not living it."

"All around, the future was fading... melting away like a photo in a fire."

"But fates are connected in ways we don’t understand. And at this moment, with the universe stopped, only the two of them could change the fate of the man who had tried to change theirs."

“All who are born are always dying.”

"We do not realize the sound the world makes—unless, of course, it comes to a stop. Then, when it starts, it sounds like an orchestra.
Breaking waves. Whipping wind. Falling rain. Squawking birds. All throughout the universe, time resumed and nature sang."

"He changed the history of his footsteps."

"Through waves of heat and fits of choking, he pushed on, driven by desperation. Although the exertion would speed his death, he would not slow down. A phrase came to his memory—time flies"

"slow his pace, as man does when he approaches what he desires, uncertain if it can possibly be all he hoped. Dare he look?"

“We cannot stop what Heaven chooses.”

"He surrendered to that sensation and felt the final drops of their lives touch one another, like water in a cave, top meets bottom, Heaven meets Earth.
As their eyes closed, a different set of eyes opened, and they rose from the ground as a shared soul, up and up, a sun and a moon in a single sky."

love this book

there are so many good quotes in this book. I wish it could be turned to a movie. I think Anthony Hopkins would be great in it. I imagine him when reading for the old man. it was nice to hear it read to me while I worked.

I loved this

The way the story was woven together as the narrator counted, It was brilliantly done!

The lesson of living for today

I loved the story. I am in a position of wishing I had more time to live and can understand Victors dilemma. I found it exciting.

Another Albom success

Albom always makes you dig deeper. Wonderful book and narration. Highly recommend - I will listen again!

time flies when it is slipping away

Would you consider the audio edition of The Time Keeper to be better than the print version?

the audio version is better as it allowed me the freedom to truly relax and enter the story

What other book might you compare The Time Keeper to and why?

this is a modern version of the classic 'It's a Wonderful Life" as it reminds me, us, of what truly is of value, the gift of life and caring for others

Which scene was your favorite?

the very last scene was my favorite; who wouldn't want to go back, correct our mistakes and love life as it was intended to be by our Creator

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I wanted to listen to this in one sitting but unfortunately I had to do a little work, but I still finished it in one day and will listen to it again

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed the concept of counting time as the framework of the story, and the reader did an excellent preformance

Captivating book about time!

It's safe to say this book has and will change my life. The concepts, references and parallels to the values of life will grip you for a heart wrenching lesson. Its almost like a splash of cold water, waking a person from the slumber of rushing thru life and taking things for granted. Wow! what an amazing book. I love it!

I enjoyed it

The narrator's voice sounded a bit robotic or computer generated sometimes but I got used to it. it was nice to have the voices of the characters change. I was interested in this book because one of joe Rogan's guest had read a couple sentences of it. I don't remember the sentence and I don't remember the guest but I remember being very interested in this book once I heard it. It's a good reminder to consider what is truly important. highly recommend Tuesday's with morey. it's by the same author. that one made me tear up a bit

One of the best

I rarely write a review for a book but after listening to this one I felt that I have to.

In short, my opinion about this book is that it's the kind of books that you wish that it will never finish and when you are done with it, you will feel like you have lost a dear friend.

good thinker

Would you consider the audio edition of The Time Keeper to be better than the print version?

Mitch Albom hits home again with a good life lesson. I love the cadance of this book and the diversity of characters. You will be able to identify with one of the many characters in this book.

What about Dan Stevens’s performance did you like?

Good different voices