Rating: 4/5
King’s latest novel begins in Lisbon Falls, Maine, where diner owner Al Templeton is having an extraordinary conversation with Jake Epping, a high school teacher.
Overnight Al has aged considerably and developed cancer. But it hasn’t really happened as suddenly as it seems – Al has actually been gone for more than four years and has travelled through a time portal that connects the present to 9 September 1958.
He’s been living in the past trying to prevent the assassination of President John F Kennedy on 22 November 1963. Now he pleads with Jake to continue the task. Jake agrees and returns to a time where almost everyone smokes, where the food is tastier and the people friendlier.
But he soon discovers that it’s not all that easy to change the past. To complicate matters he falls in love with Sadie Dunhill, a sexy school librarian.
Apart from the time travelling, this is a fairly “normal” King novel, but that doesn’t make it dull. Well written and believable, it’s a gripping and thoroughly enjoyable read.
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