How to Stop Time by Matt Haigh

Physics tells us that time passes more slowly the faster you go but suppose it goes more slowly for some individuals because they age very slowly. This is the unusual concept behind this novel. 

Tom Hazard was born in Tudor times but despite living over 450 years, is only 40ish in appearance in the present day. This raises lots of problems. How do you marry and have children when they and your wife grow old and die, leaving a still very young you behind? What happens when witch-fearing neighbours notice that you never look a day older? They only thing to do is move, and make a new life somewhere else for a few years, but above all the golden rule is, “don't fall in love”. 

We follow Tom through a series of switchbacks to earlier times, where he does marry and does have a child. His daughter has inherited his condition of slow-aging but he loses track of her when her mother died and has spent the rest of his life searching for her. So far, so OK. But for me the follow through in terms of plot does not hang together well. 

There are a lot of philosophical musings about life and fear of the future, but the punch line is a truism - forget the future and just live the present. If you like The Time-travellers Wife then you should find How to Stop Time an interesting read.