the thief of time

take me home

1st novel the thief of time published originally in the uk in august 2000

story

It is 1758 and Matthieu Zéla is fleeing Paris for Dover, having witnessed the murder of his mother by his stepfather.

Beginning in murder and ending in redemption, Matthieu’s life is characterised by one extraordinary fact: before the eighteenth century ends he discovers that his body has stopped ageing. At the end of the twentieth century he is able to look back on a life lived to the full. he has been an engineer, a rogue, a movie mogul, a soldier, a cable TV executive, and a lover to many.

Spanning two and a half centuries, the thief of time weaves Hollywood in the 1920s, the Great Exhibition of 1851, the French Revolution, the Wall Street Crash and much more into a dazzling novel of murder, treachery, passion and glamour.

editions

UK Editions:

• Orion / Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Hardback, Aug 2000, ISBN 0297646540, 376 pp, 16.99 stg

• Orion / Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Trade Paperback, Aug 2000, ISBN 0297646567, 376 pp, 9.99 stg

• Orion / Phoenix House, Paperback, Sep 2001, ISBN 0753812762, 424 pp, 6.99 stg

USA Edition:

• St Martin's Press / Thomas Dunne Books, Hardback, Mar 2007, ISBN 0312354800, 384 pp, $24.95

• St Martin's Press / Griffin, Paperback, Jan 2008, ISBN 9780312378042, 384 pp, $14.95

Holland Edition:

• De Bezige Bij, Paperback, Mar 2002, ISBN 9023400712, 525 pp, 27.50 euro   "Dief Van De Tijd"

• Arena, Hardback, Nov 2006, ISBN 9069748363, 528 pp, 19.95 euro   "Dief Van De Tijd"

Italy Edition:

• Rizzoli, date tba

Russia Edition:

• Eksmo, Hardback, Sep 2005, ISBN 5699133070, 512 pp   "Похититель вечности"

Spain Edition:

• Salamandra, date tba

reviews

"The charm of Boyne's extraordinary debut is the playful ease with which he carries off the novel’s central conceit… The various strands of the story are resolved with a stylish twist and genuine warmth."
- The Sunday Express

"Boyne is a skilful storyteller... the novel is superbly constructed... the pace never flags and at times it's genuinely  thrilling."
- The Sunday Tribune

"Boyne is to be commended for the scale of his ambition, for structuring and managing such an intricate narrative, and for representing so convincingly the shallowness within much contemporary culture."
- The Irish Times

"A minor masterpiece of organisation and historical sampling."
- Time Out