Three strangers’ lives are forever changed when they’re all drawn to a mysterious agency claiming to have unlocked the secret to time travel in this dazzling novel from award-winning author Jaclyn Moriarty.
Anna, Teddy, and Jade are on a collision course. The Agency is the cause. It is also the solution.
On a bustling road in Sydney, Australia, lies a nondescript storefront known simply as the Time Travel Agency. At once a confounding mystery and a beacon of hope, the Agency attracts those at a crossroads in their life.
Single mother Anna is in desperate need of change, and the Agency gives her the chance to begin her career—and life—anew. Teddy is a genius at salvaging businesses but needs saving himself, and he’s drawn to the Agency hoping to travel back in time to untangle his troubled childhood and his recently imploded marriage. Jade has no interest in the Agency at all, because there’s no way people are literally time traveling, right? Jade’s present is challenging enough with her spirited, increasingly bad-tempered daughter and a deeply buried secret too painful for words.
As Anna’s, Teddy’s, and Jade’s paths converge, the question of just how legitimate the Agency’s ventures into the past are becomes a provocative, tantalizing, and even heart-wrenching one to parse—but there is no denying that the ripple effects through all three of their lives are very, very real.
Praise for Time Travel for Beginners
“An SF-adjacent cappuccino: Frothy on top, good hearty brew beneath….this gently eccentric tale of familial challenges will delight fans of Matt Haig and TJ Klune.” —Kirkus
“A joyfully sad, quietly clever, and loudly delightful time-travel novel. By turns a meditation on mourning, happiness, and the deep truths of living. Time Travel for Beginners only gets more delicious with every read.” —Justine Larbalestier & Scott Westerfeld, authors of The Mortons
“A truly amazing book! Time Travel for Beginners is absolutely gorgeous, smart, funny, deep, dreamy, and perfect. And it comes together beautifully at the end. It left my heart full and happy, and as always, I was swept away by Jaclyn Moriarty’s brilliance.” —New York Times bestselling author Rachel Cohn
“I could wish I wrote it but then I wouldn’t have had the pleasure of reading this truly extraordinary exquisite novel. It’s both hilarious and heart-breaking, thoughtful and compelling. It’s hard for me (I’m the eldest) but I just have to say it, my sister is a literary genius.” —New York Times bestselling author Liane Moriarty
“Oh, my heart. This book is propulsive, funny, life-affirming and gave me all the feels. I dare you to read it and not fall absolutely in love.” —Colleen Oakley,USA Today bestselling author of Jane and Dan at the End of the World
“This book floored me in the gentlest of ways. It was imaginative, original, and utterly engrossing from start to finish. From its uniquely likeable characters to its intricately woven plot, I loved absolutely everything about it. If you are drawn to books which convince you that the seemingly impossible is utterly plausible, this one is for you.”—Amelia Ireland, author of The Seven O’Clock Club
“A winner that explores fate and how we are all connected.” —FirstClue
“… Moriarty’s (Gravity Is the Thing) novel has charm, especially between Anna and Teddy, and depth, with its encouragement to look toward the future, not the past.”—Library Journal
