Audrey Niffenegger just published Life Out of Order, a sequel to her 2003 bestseller The Time Traveler’s Wife. That’s a 23-year gap between books, and the follow-up is anything but small. It runs over 500 pages and shifts the focus to Alba, the daughter of Clare and Henry, who inherited the family’s time-travel gene.
The story follows Alba and a fellow traveler named Oliver as they skip through time, with a polyamorous love triangle, a resistance subplot, and a setting that stretches from present-day Chicago into a near future reshaped by climate change and artificial intelligence. The novel also revisits some of the uncomfortable age-gap themes from the original, and the Alba-Oliver relationship is already sparking plenty of debate online.
The original book was a bestseller, a modest box office performer, and later a less successful HBO series, so fans come into this one with strong feelings. Whether Life Out of Order becomes a beloved sequel or a polarizing one, it’s officially the book of the moment. Are you picking it up, or is the original enough for you?
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Local Lawton
Local Lawton is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.
