Time After Time
Time After Time
Random House, June 2019
A magical love story, inspired by the legend of a woman who vanished from Grand Central Terminal, sweeps readers from the 1920s to World War II and beyond, in the spirit of The Time Traveler’s Wife and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
“I’ll never again set foot in Grand Central Terminal without looking over my shoulder for Nora and Joe, or marveling at the station itself—a backdrop as intriguing as the love story that unfolds beneath its star-studded ceiling.”
Recommended by:
Amazon’s Summer Reading: The Best Books for Your Beach Bag + Barnes & Noble’s #BookYourSummer: Fiction You Will Always Remember + Time.com's 32 Books You Need to Read This Summer + BookPage’s Summer Reading 2019 + The Christian Science Monitor’s 10 Best Books of June + The Daily Break’s 11 Best Books of June + Modern Mrs. Darcy’s Reading Guide + Woman’s Day’s Great Read for June, 2019 + Historical Novel Society, August, 2019
Paperback
Amazon / Barnes and Noble / BAM / Bookshop.org / Powell’s / Target
Hardcover
Amazon / Barnes and Noble / BAM / IndieBound / The Lit. Bar / Powell’s / Target
eBook
Amazon / Apple Books / BAM / Barnes and Noble / Google / Kobo
“Lisa Grunwald’s supernatural novel charts Joe and Nora’s time-defying romance as it unfolds under the arches of New York’s Grand Central Terminal.”
“An unforgettable tale of otherworldly romance, Grunwald’s book is a true page-turner. Pick up a copy and prepare to be transported.”
“Here is a glorious novel to savor and return to again and again. I fell in love with Joe and Nora, star-crossed lovers from a time when women wore gloves, men wore hats and a train ticket could change the course of your life. The spectacular Lisa Grunwald has written a classic story—of fate, true love, art and chance—with truth and beauty. You will want to share it with every reader you know.”
—Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of Tony’s Wife
“Lisa Grunwald has written my favorite kind of novel. Set within the wondrous boundaries of Grand Central Terminal, Time After Time is the story of Joe and Nora, the love they find amidst impossible circumstances, their fight to stay together, and the great sacrifices they find along the way. I utterly loved this clever, charming, hopeful tale of true love against all odds.”
—Ariel Lawhon, New York Times bestselling author of I Was Anastasia
“The only aspect of Lisa Grunwald’s talent that is as impressive as her well-known gifts as a novelist is her gift for history. Time After Time doesn’t just recreate the lost New York of the 1920’s to 1940’s, it inhabits it—and so will the reader, in the company of the book’s wonderful characters.”
—Daniel Okrent, bestselling author of Last Call and The Guarded Gate
Grunwald crafts a delightful and engaging love story that unfurls alongside the fascinating history of Grand Central Terminal. Through Nora and Joe and the hum of the terminal, Grunwald offers snapshots of New York City, from the devil-may-care whirl of the Twenties to the bleakness of the Great Depression, from the anxious energy of wartime to the hopefulness of the postwar years. Despite the fantastical nature of Nora’s life, Grunwald never allows the supernatural to overpower the characters, their story, or the history swirling around them. Their love flourishes irrespective of time. Recommended.
—HistoricalNovelSociety
“An ingenious and winsome novel.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“A World War II-set historical with a sprinkling of magic.”
—Library Journal
“A satisfying supernatural romance about lovers brought together across time. . . . Readers who enjoyed Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife will be enchanted.”
—Publishers Weekly
It is rare that I pick-up a book and have to keep reading… Not with this gem. It had me at two sentences. The story of Nora and Joe is… charming, funny, sweet, heart-wrenching (literally, there was a certain scene I could feel my heart tighten for Joe) and I guess if I had to chose one word, beautiful.”
—A.M. Kimber, Goodreads
“If you're looking for a beautiful love story that will effortlessly transport you to a different time and place, THIS is the book for you.”
—Julia, Goodreads
“After I finished the book, I could not explain the story to my husband without it getting caught in my throat and tearing up. I was riveted by this novel! And (no spoilers) it had the perfect ending, not to be told here. I’ll be thinking of Joe and Nora every time I walk through Grand Central Staton for the rest of my life.”
—Ellie, Goodreads
“Time After Time is a must-read for history buffs and romantics alike. Exceptionally well-written and well-researched, this novel delves deep into the history of the Grand Central Terminal. Then, there is Nora and Joe, two likable, yet fabulously flawed individuals willing to fight against all odds to be together and sacrifice everything for the other. Steeped in magic and mysticism, Time After Time is much more than your run-of-the-mill love story. It is an adventure.”
—K.T.C., NetGalley
“For anyone who is searching for meaning in the world, or what love truly is, or how a life is built and sustains, I highly recommend this novel.”
—Lauren, NetGalleyx
About Time After Time
On a clear December morning in 1937, at the famous gold clock in Grand Central Terminal, Joe Reynolds, a hardworking railroad man from Queens, meets a vibrant young woman who seems mysteriously out of place. Nora Lansing is a Manhattan socialite whose flapper clothing, pearl earrings, and talk of the Roaring Twenties don’t seem to match the bleak mood of Depression-era New York. Captivated by Nora from her first electric touch, Joe despairs when he tries to walk her home and she disappears. Finding her again—and again—will become the focus of his love and his life.
Nora, an aspiring artist and fiercely independent, is shocked to find she’s somehow been trapped, her presence in the terminal governed by rules she cannot fathom. It isn’t until she meets Joe that she begins to understand the effect that time is having on her, and the possible connections to the workings of Grand Central and the solar phenomenon known as Manhattanhenge, when the sun rises or sets between the city’s skyscrapers, aligned perfectly with the streets below.
As thousands of visitors pass under the famous celestial blue ceiling each day, Joe and Nora create a life unlike any they could have imagined. With infinite love in a finite space, they take full advantage of the “Terminal City” within a city, dining at the Oyster Bar, visiting the Whispering Gallery, and making a home at the Biltmore Hotel. But when the construction of another landmark threatens their future, Nora and Joe are forced to test the limits of freedom and love.
Delving into Grand Central Terminal’s rich past, Lisa Grunwald crafts a masterful historical novel about a love affair that defies age, class, place, and even time.