This Sussex,England prolific author of both fiction and non fiction here develops the story of a man who has lived for 439 years. He has a rare condition that they name anageria, the opposite of progeria, a real genetic disease of premature aging. Eventually he finds others with this condition, and form a society they call the Albatross Society, as opposed to the short-lived Mayflies. This becomes a dangerous condition and he is forced to change his name, identity, and job every eight years.
He and his mother were Huguenotsc, chased out of France by the Catholics in the 1500s. His daughter shares the trait but is lost to him for centuries. In the course of his life he meets Shakespeare and has long conversations with him in the Queen’s pub and plays the lute in the Globe theatre. He converses with F. Scot Fitzgerald in a Paris pub. These are by no means the only celebrities he meets and befriends, including Captain Cook.
Eventually the founder of the Albatross Society is exposed as a egotistical self-centred individual willing to sacrifice its members. Inevitably the first person singular protagonist is reunited with his daughter after centuries of separation.
I have mixed feelings about how to rate this book. The central thesis of time travel and anageria is preposterous but ingenious and there are astute observations about what it means to be human including this:
“This is the chief comfort of being 439 years old. The main lesson from history is: humans don’t learn from history.”
Or this: “Music doesn’t get in. Music is already in. Music simply uncovers emotions you didn’t know you had inside you and runs around waking them all up. A rebirth of sorts.”
4.0/5
Thanks Barb.
The Passionate Reader 