The Outcasts of Time

by Ian Mortimer Narrated by James Cameron Stewart

Overview

December 1348. What if you had just six days to save your soul?



With the country in the grip of the Black Death, brothers John and William fear that they will shortly die and suffer in the afterlife. But as the end draws near, they are given an unexpected choice: either to go home and spend their last six days in their familiar world, or to search for salvation across the forthcoming centuries-living each one of their remaining days ninety-nine years after the last.



John and William choose the future and find themselves in 1447, ignorant of almost everything going on around them. The year 1546 brings no more comfort, and 1645 challenges them in further unexpected ways. It is not just that technology is changing: things they have taken for granted all their lives prove to be short-lived.



As they find themselves in stranger and stranger times, the listener travels with them, seeing the world through their eyes as it shifts through disease, progress, enlightenment, and war. But their time is running out-can they do something to redeem themselves before the six days are up?

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

03/12/2018
Man’s yearning for purpose and legacy are traced through the eyes of a devout stone carver in the latest from Mortimer (The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England), a compassionate and thought-provoking exploration of faith, conscience, guilt, self-worth, and redemption. In 1348 England, John of Wrayment (“Everyman”) and his older, sinful brother, William Beard, return home to Exeter, avoiding plague-ridden travelers and dead bodies along the road. After an act of kindness brings disastrous results, they become infected and fear returning to their families. Desperate, John is confronted by a mystical voice offering to let him and his brother live each one of their six remaining days 99 years after the last. Eager to make amends and earn his place in heaven, John accepts. Over 595 years, culminating with the bombings of World War II in 1942, Mortimer’s melancholy jaunt through the ages reveals the cultural and technological advancements of food, fashion, religion, government, and war. John observes the paradox that “man is a devil to man” yet has immense capacity for charity and benevolence. Through John, Mortimer tackles the philosophical quandaries of man’s brutality and hypocrisy, the nature of sin, duty to crown and country, and every man’s desire to have lived a worthy life, resulting in a ruminative and imaginative novel. (Jan.)

From the Publisher

It's an incredible tour de force, a vivid and page-turning evocation of an age that is long-gone yet has been brought to life again in vibrant and robust fashion thanks to Ian Mortimer's impeccable scholarship and pacy writing.” ---Alison Weir, New York Times bestselling author

Alison Weir

It's an incredible tour de force, a vivid and page-turning evocation of an age that is long-gone yet has been brought to life again in vibrant and robust fashion thanks to Ian Mortimer's impeccable scholarship and pacy writing.

Booklist

Through everyday details, the reader, along with the brothers, is drawn into the experience of the astounding changes in technology and society that occur with the passage of time.

British Heritage Travel

An amazing journey through English history, watching everymen from the 1300s navigate various futures.

Midwest Book Review

Original, inherently fascinating, and a consistently entertaining read from cover to cover, The Outcasts of Time showcases author Ian Mortimer's genuine flair for narrative driven storytelling.

Booklist

Through everyday details, the reader, along with the brothers, is drawn into the experience of the astounding changes in technology and society that occur with the passage of time.

From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY

It's an incredible tour de force, a vivid and page-turning evocation of an age that is long-gone yet has been brought to life again in vibrant and robust fashion thanks to Ian Mortimer's impeccable scholarship and pacy writing. —Alison Weir, New York Times bestselling author

Library Journal

★ 11/01/2017
This vividly descriptive time-travel adventure by the acclaimed author of "The Time Traveler's Guide" series reads like historical fiction, but given the surreal plot, becomes a story about the love and devotion between two brothers caught in an impossible situation. Journeying home on a cold, bleak day in December 1348, brothers John and William face death as they become victims of the Black Plague. Then a voice comes and offers them a chance to live for six more days, but each day will be 99 years apart in the future. With brotherly loyalty, they accept in hopes of redeeming their souls. So begins a quest through six centuries. In order to survive, the brothers quickly adjust to changing customs, religious beliefs, inventions, food, clothing, and laws. They stay true to each other and their moral beliefs but wonder how they can be redeemed in the end. VERDICT The period immersion in this unusual tale of time travel and redemption comes close in detail and tone to Jack Finney's Time and Again and From Time to Time, as well as Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander" series. Highly recommended—Susan Carr, Edwardsville P.L., IL

APRIL 2018 - AudioFile

Ian Mortimer is a respected English historian, so it’s no surprise that he gets the historical details right here. Narrator James Cameron Stewart has a more difficult task, conveying the outsider quality of the protagonist's speech when he travels not through space, but through time, living seven single days, each 99 years later than the last, starting in 1348 near Exeter, England. Stewart does this by giving John a strong regional accent, while most other people's speech, through time, gets closer to modern standard English. Stewart's reading is strong and passionate when needed but limited by the book’s lengthy theological discussions. Those are important to the author's concept of the story, but they sometimes make the listening experience drag. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170929436
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	01/02/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos