Colleen Browne's Reviews > The Thief of Time

Matthieu never ages. She crosses one century after another having reached the age of 50 but never going past it. He always has a nephew named Tommy and each one of the Tommy's dies at a young age of unnatural causes. Matthieu himself, having come up poor, is very successful, financially- at least after having past his childhood. The reader is treated to a non-linear description of each of his "lives"- including all his wives, girlfriends, etc. He never has children of his own for one reason or another. His first love Dominique, doesn't work out but he is always haunted by that.

In the course of time, it begins to worry him that he is never able to save any of the Tommy's. He is always moving on the the next phase of his life as the current Tommy self-destructs or dies. I won't give any more details as I do not want to give away any of the plot or ending. Suffice to say, that throughout all of his lives, Matthieu is in search of love and stability and Boyne does a brilliant job of telling the story and gliding through time through epic events like the French Revolution, two world wars, and the McCarthy era, to name a few. He is a great writer and this is another great book.