The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Author: Audrey Niffenegger

Published: 2003
Novel.

The novel tells the stories of Henry DeTamble, a librarian at the Newberry Library in Chicago, and his wife, Clare Anne Abshire, an artist who makes paper sculptures. Henry has a rare genetic disorder, which comes to be known as Chrono-Impairment, that causes him to involuntarily travel through time. When 20-year-old Clare meets 28-year-old Henry at the Newberry Library in 1991, he has never seen her before, although she has known him most of her life. 

Henry begins time traveling at the age of five, jumping forward and backward to his own timeline. When he leaves, where he goes, or how long his trips will last are all beyond his control. His destinations are tied to his subconscious. Certain stimuli such as stress can trigger Henry's time traveling; he often goes jogging to keep calm and remain in the present. He also searches out pharmaceuticals in the future that may be able to help control his time traveling. 

Once their timelines converge naturally at the library, Henry starts to travel to Clare's childhood and adolescence in South Haven, Michigan, beginning in 1977 when she is six years old. On one of his early visits, Henry gives her a list of the dates he will appear and she writes them in a diary so she will remember to provide him with clothes and food when he arrives. During another visit, he inadvertently reveals that they will be married in the future. Over time they develop a close relationship. 

Clare is last visited in her youth by Henry in 1989, on her eighteenth birthday, during which they make love for the first time. They are separated for two years until finally meeting in the library. 

Clare and Henry marry, but Clare has trouble bringing a pregnancy to term because the genetic anomaly Henry may presumably be passing on to the fetus. After six miscarriages, Henry has a vasectomy. However a version of Henry from the past visits Clare and they make love, she gives birth to Alba. Before she is born, Henry travels to the future and meets his 10-year-old daughter, learning that he will die when she is five years old. 

Characters: 
Clare Abshire
Henry DeTamble
Anette DeTamble
Alba DeTamble
Richard DeTamble