I first read this unusual novel some time back, courtesy of this copy from BCer carr0ts, and liked its dreamy blend of emotional upheaval and a kind of intangible time travel, so when I found this slightly-battered hardcover at the Salvation Army thrift store, I picked it up for another release copy.

I really enjoyed this book, and am still surprised that I'd never heard of it before seeing it on BC. It's a moody, atmospheric book with subplots involving time travel (of a sort), scientific experiments, marital discord, and historical melodrama. (It's also a bit ambiguous; if you like your novels to tie up all the plot threads neatly at the end, this may not be the book for you.) It begins as the narrator is experiencing his first time-jump; his friend Magnus has sent him an experimental drug, the effect of which is to allow him to observe and move through the distant past as if he were there, but without his actually being present - or being able to touch or interact with anything from that time. [As he discovers all too soon, his body moves through the present as his consciousness moves through the past, so while he's observing these fascinating scenes he's effectively sleep-walking around the countryside oblivious to pitfalls and traffic. This will eventually result in some nightmarish episodes, but it doesn't dissuade our hero from becoming addicted to this time-voyeurism!] He becomes fascinated with the characters he sees in the past, and spends his intervals in the present doing research to try to verify their existence and see whether the drug actually does let him see the past or simply generates hallucinations.

Many aspects of the time-travel process are left unexplained, though the characters make a few guesses and the reader can make a few more. Since the whole thing's experimental, even Magnus the inventor doesn't quite know what's going on. [While Magnus remains offstage for most of the book, communicating only briefly with the narrator via phone and letter, he's a significant part of the story. In addition to setting up the experiment that drives most of the plot, Magnus is also a key figure in the narrator's life; the narrator describes their early friendship fondly, and suggests that some of the tension in his marriage is due to his wife's dislike of Magnus. Whether that's because she's jealous of their friendship - or of the possibility of something more, as it's revealed later in the book that Magnus is gay - is never made quite clear; but then, as I said, if you want subplots neatly tied up, this is not the book for you! At any rate, when Magnus does appear on the scene, the tension tightens, and - but no, I wouldn't want to spoil it...]

For a book that unfolds as slowly as this one does, there's quite a bit of suspense, often with that nightmarish quality of being unable to get away from an impending threat. I enjoyed this quite a lot.

[I listened to an audiobook version of this story as well, via my Audible.com subscription; it was abridged, alas, but still an intriguing rendition.]

I left this book, bagged against the elements, on a bench at the shore of the lake at around 4 on this beautiful day; hope the finder enjoys it!