The Age of Miracles: A Novel

by Karen Thompson Walker

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
People ∙ O: The Oprah Magazine ∙ Financial Times ∙ Kansas City Star ∙ BookPage ∙ Kirkus Reviews ∙ Publishers Weekly ∙ Booklist

With a voice as distinctive and original as that of The Lovely Bones, and for the fans of the speculative fiction of Margaret Atwood, Karen Thompson Walker’s The Age of Miracles is a luminous and unforgettable debut novel about coming of age set against the backdrop of an utterly altered world.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Maybe everything that happened to me and to my family had nothing at all to do with the slowing. It's possible, I guess. But I doubt it. I doubt it very much.”

Spellbinding, haunting, The Age of Miracles is a beautiful novel of catastrophe and survival, growth and change, the story of Julia and her family as they struggle to live in an extraordinary time. On an ordinary Saturday, Julia awakes to discover that something has happened to the rotation of the earth. The days and nights are growing longer and longer, gravity is affected, the birds, the tides, human behavior and cosmic rhythms are thrown into disarray. In a world of danger and loss, Julia faces surprising developments in herself, and her personal world—divisions widening between her parents, strange behavior by Hannah and other friends, the vulnerability of first love, a sense of isolation, and a rebellious new strength. With crystalline prose and the indelible magic of a born storyteller, Karen Thompson Walker gives us a breathtaking story of people finding ways to go on, in an ever-evolving world.

Praise for The Age of Miracles

“A stunner.”—Justin Cronin
 
“A genuinely moving tale that mixes the real and surreal, the ordinary and the extraordinary, with impressive fluency and flair.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“Gripping drama . . . flawlessly written; it could be the most assured debut by an American writer since Jennifer Egan’s Emerald City.”—The Denver Post
 
“If you begin this book, you’ll be loath to set it down until you’ve reached its end.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Provides solace with its wisdom, compassion, and elegance.”—Curtis Sittenfeld

Don’t miss the exclusive conversation between Karen Thompson Walker and Karen Russell at the back of the book.

• ISBN10: 0812982940
• ISBN13: 9780812982947
• Publish Date: 15 January 2013 (first published 1 January 2012)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Random House Trade Paperbacks
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 304
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780812982947

Reviews

[mary]

This is a beautifully written coming of age story. The writing is descriptive but not overbearing and conveys the sense of the slowing of time. Even though its a book about global as well as personal catastrophes and the surviving of them, there are no scientific breakthroughs to help. I enjoyed the way the novel revealed the ways humans survive on a day to day basis, slowly adjusting to the terrible things around us. I truly loved the ending. Overall, while it's very beautiful in both aesthetics and literature. My only complaint is since the book was quite short I felt that there were multiple opportunities to allow for more scientific explanations for the slowing of time. It is a book that with a little patience one can appreciate its power.

[Kelly]

http://www.divabooknerd.com/2015/03/the-age-of-miracles-by-karen-thompson.html
The Age of Miracles was a glorious coming of age novel, and what happens when the world is on the verge of collapse. Daylight spans minutes longer each day, each night lasting into the morning until one full Earth rotation is verging on forty hours. The phenomena has left scientists at a loss with the cause so far unknown, the nation is divided and on the verge of civil war between those who live by the clock and those who live by real time. But amidst the panic, it follows the storyline of eleven year old Julia. She's beginning to see the repercussions the crisis is having on her parents marriage, while her best friend leaves for a Mormon community where she's expected to wait out the end of days. With a sense of normalcy, life still goes on. Her father still works at the hospital, she still attends school and she still has a crush on Seth.

Julia is not only likable, but wise beyond her years. I felt for her, growing up in an uncertain world and seemingly the common factor that is holding her parents together. Even with the promise of the world ending, Julia soldiers on. An incredibly strong young woman that completely endeared me.

It's beautifully written and unique. Reminiscent of the classic Australian novel Puberty Blues, but with an apocalyptic twist. I read long into the early hours of the morning and simply couldn't put it down. It was a cross between being incredibly invested in Julia's story, and the morbid fascination to see whether or not the world would actually end. It's a coming of age novel of epic proportions and I absolutely loved every moment.

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

I know everyone seems to be reading this novel and I try not to follow the crowd, but this book sounded too good to pass up. The Age of Miracle tells the story of eleven year old Julia and her experience in a drastic change to the world that could be the start of the apocalypse. The world is slowing down and the days are getting longer, first be a few minutes and then by hours. Julia is trying to recount the events of this difficult time; both the end of the world and being a teenager.

This is a wonderful blend of a coming of age story with a back drop of a speculative novel. Amongst the chaos and people not knowing what to do, you have a Julia talking about her journey into adulthood. But does it work? Personally I would have liked to know more about the world slowing and the speculative fiction elements, but I think the blend between young adult and genre fiction was masterfully done.

My biggest problem with this book and it’s one of my literary bête noires in post apocalypse and dystopian fiction is that Karen Thompson Walker writes this book in first person past tense. Which gives me a sense of knowing what will happen in the end and there is no way to build tension. But this is only a minor issue in a book like this because this more a beautiful novel of self discovery and growing up.

Karen Thompson Walker’s writes with such elegance and beauty that I was surprised to find this was a debut novel. Her skill of mixing YA with Speculative fiction and then making it into something that I would consider literature was just done brilliantly. She has such skill of not over shadowing the coming of age elements with the chaos of the world around her. I was surprised at how fast I read this book, I was fully immersed in this book and the beauty of what I was reading I was a little sad to see it end.

I can’t recommend this book enough, Julia was a wonderful protagonist and her journey was delightful. The Age of Miracle doesn’t give you any answers but cleverly revels what is going on without forcing anything on the reader. It’s a fascination novel with really needs to be experienced firsthand. Sure the science of the slowing would be interesting to read about but it would never work in a book like this. I must admit I look forward to see what Karen Thompson Walker does next and would be interested to find a book similar to this gem.