I run a reading workshop which begins with a little shelf assessment. Participants bring a stack of books that have shaped who they are: childhood treasures; new revelations; comfort reads. Books they once cherished but have now outgrown. The usual suspect in that category is Audrey Niffenegger’s 2003 novel The Time Traveler’s Wife . Once smitten, readers now find that time-warped romance cruel. What felt like destiny now feels like a cage. As they explain, I’m always struck by the same thought: Wasn’t it always cruel? Wasn’t that the point?

Henry DeTamble and Clare Abshire are a couple caught in a causal loop. The irresolvable question is where that loop starts: does a bright young art student fall in love with a junior librarian, or does a time-travelling man groom a child to become his future wife? If the answer is both – and it has to be – what are we to make of their marriage?…