Faculty of Arts

Keeping Time

Keeping Time is about an archaeologist who travels back in time and has an affair with his wife -- or is it about a musician having an affair with her husband?

When archaeologist Aaron Keeler finds himself transported eighteen years into the past, he becomes swept up in a strangely illicit liaison with his younger wife, Violet. A classical musician, she’s delighted by the more attentive and “weathered” version of her husband as he visits repeatedly across a span of nearly two decades.

With time passing in both worlds, Aaron makes startling discoveries at a prehistoric site he’s excavating and reaches a crisis point with the older Violet—the mother of their two young children—as his health mysteriously begins to deteriorate. Meanwhile, Violet’s musical performances take on a resonance related to secrets in both time frames. With their children and Aaron’s life at risk, he and Violet try to repair the damage before it’s too late.

Trailer, excepts and reviews

A copy of Keeping Time resting on a stone wall.Published: March 2020

Acre Books/University of Cincinnati Press

 
A headshot of Thomas Legendre.
Keeping Time required years of research and practice in the fields of archaeology, music, astronomy, geology, and time travel, among other things. I never quite mastered the practice of time travel, but the ‘what if’ was a pretty good substitute.
Thomas Legendre
Assistant Professor of Creative Writing
 

See more of Thomas Legendre's work

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