The Psychology of Time Travel
In 1967, four British women scientists, Margaret, Lucille, Grace, and Barbara, build the world's first working time machine in a Cumbrian shed. Days before the launch press conference, Barbara's mind cracks under the strain of the unraveling and Margaret quietly forces her out of the program before she can ruin it. Half a century later, Barbara's granddaughter Ruby starts receiving postcards from the future and a frightening newspaper clipping describing the murder of an unidentified woman in 2018. In a parallel strand, a young recent migrant named Odette stumbles across that woman's body in a London museum bathroom and refuses to let it go. Kate Mascarenhas's 2018 debut braids murder mystery, queer love story, and feminist science fiction into a single careful structure, asking what time travel might do to a culture that takes its grief and inserts it on the calendar.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about The Psychology of Time Travel
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In 1967 rural England, four young women scientists, Margaret, Lucille, Grace, and Barbara, build the world's first working time machine and become national celebrities. Decades later, the Time Travel Conclave is a closed industry, and Barbara's granddaughter Ruby finds a body in a museum.
The Psychology of Time Travel was written by Kate Mascarenhas and published in 2018. It was Mascarenhas's debut novel, blending time-travel sci-fi with murder mystery.
The Psychology of Time Travel uses multiple narrators across decades, with the time-travel mechanic complicating chronology. Most readers find the structure rewarding once it clicks. The novel is around 350 pages.
The Psychology of Time Travel is 320 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Psychology of Time Travel takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
The Psychology of Time Travel is a standalone novel by Kate Mascarenhas, not part of a series.
The Psychology of Time Travel is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.