The Time Keeper: two time-centric threads joined in minute detail

Mitch Albon's new novel contrasts two narratives about the meaning and nature of time.

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom.

Mitch Albom returns with his new novel The Time Keeper, a claustrophobic story that concerns itself with the seemingly contrasting but interconnected tales of Victor Delamore, a fabulously wealthy but ageing American businessman who's riddled with terminal cancer, and Sarah Lemon, an unpopular high school student who is suddenly flattered by the attentions of a much better-looking and more desired contemporary.

Albom, best known for his best-sellers Have a Little Faith: A True Story, Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, sets an almost mythical figure named Dor to preside over Victor and Sarah's unravelling fortunes.

Really though, Albom's book is a consideration of the constraints and meaning of time: Victor wants to stop the clock so he may find a way to explore the possibility of cryogenically freezing his body until such a time as a cure can be found for his illness, while Sarah wants time to rush forward to eat up the days before her handsome suitor will take her out on a date. It's a neat set-up that Albom unfolds with appropriately masterful ease.