I’ve only read one of Albom’s books, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, but I loved it. He has a way of getting a message across without becoming too preachy. The Time Keeper is no different.

Dor is an amazing character. He’s brilliant in life, discovering the patters that mark the passage of the day. But it comes at a cost. As he falls deeper into tracking the progress of the as yet unnamed time, he loses track of what he really needs to pay attention to. His family. He sees them, yes, but he loses those little tiny moments you appreciate later in life, more than any big gesture that may happen. Because he has taken his knowledge of time, and it has spread, unwillingly, he is taken and made to live in solitude, listening to people bemoan the passage of time.

Sarah is a teen girl, ridiculed for things in her life, lowering her self esteem to a point where she wants no more time in her life. She can’t see the future waiting for her; she can’t see how these problems are something she can overcome and in the end make her life so much better than she thinks it can be. She doesn’t see that the teen years give way to the twenties, the thirties, the forties and beyond, giving her so many years to experience the love she desperately wants.

Victor is a man who wants more time. He’s not ready to give up his time on Earth, to give into his age and let the natural order of the world take over. He only looks towards the future, forgetting he needs to live in the present and appreciate what he has when he has it. He can’t see the amazing life he has had and appreciate the time he has been given.

The almost choppy style of the writing fits really well. Albom doesn’t spend too much time one each person’s story before jumping to the next, tying them together, showing how so many stories can carry on at the same time.

In the end, I was left tearing up, and thinking about how well I manage my own time, giving it to the people and things that matter most in life, and making moments that I’ll remember later on in life. The Time Keeper is yet another amazing Mitch Albom novel that everyone should read. It makes you think and leaves your heart feeling happy.