‘How Soon Is Now?’ is one of those rare novels that leaves you pondering its characters and ideas long after you’ve finished the last page, while also delivering a rattling good read that propels you from chapter to chapter to find out what happens next.
That’s because, despite the high-concept idea at its core - what if you could travel back to be yourself at any previous stage in your life? - this is a book about people. The time travel hook is an ingenious way to dig deep into the stories of lead character Luke and the other members of the mysterious Nostalgia Club, and the book delivers a clutch of memorable characters as the various mysteries at its heart unfold.
In fact, you’ll find yourself so busy wondering why the Club recruited Luke, what dark part of his past he’s so keen to avoid, or what that other time traveller could be up to, that it might only be later that you realise you’ve also been thinking about themes like love, loss, memory, regret and predestination.
The prose, even in the midst of some particularly knotty time-travel twists, is clear and crisp, and there’s something almost cinematic about its structure and atmosphere. It plays out like a movie - or, more likely, a miniseries - in your head.
Fittingly, ‘How Soon Is Now?’ feels like a book you’ll want to return to again and again.

Simultaneously entertaining, funny & wise, this isn't a hackneyed time-travel novel. A nuanced, touching reflection on the nature of memory, place, fate and accident and how we respond to that in our lives. Intertwines human stories, places and time brilliantly. As someone who studied in Scotland in the 90s and who knows both Edinburgh and Glasgow reasonably well, there was some personal nostalgia too.