How to Stop Time, by Matt Haig

Tom Hazzard is 439 years old, but looks middle aged. He is not a vampire, nor immortal, but an ‘Alba’, one of many humans with a condition that dramatically slows ageing after puberty. He has to constantly move and start over to avoid detection and the inevitable ensuing outcry and opprobrium. A measure of protection is supplied by Hendricks, the alpha Alba, who has contempt for the mayfly lives of ordinary humans and has founded a society of Albas. But the price of membership could be too high. Tom has avoided love since the loss of his wife in the 16th century, but 400 years later he finds himself falling for Camille. How will he protect her from Hendricks and the society? Slow and not very engaging, the ennui of an overly long life is convincing but not especially interesting, despite the obligatory encounters with famous people through the ages – Shakespeare, Captain Cook, F Scott Fitzgerald, just to name-drop a few. In the end it is clear that how to stop time is to live in the moment, but the message is rather heavy handed and it is a long slog to get there.