The Age of Miracles: A Novel

Karen Thompson Walker

Jun 2012 · Sold by Random House

About this ebook

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

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
 
“A stunner.”—Justin Cronin
 
“It’s never the disasters you see coming that finally come to pass—it’s the ones you don’t expect at all,” says Julia, in this spellbinding novel of catastrophe and survival by a superb new writer. Luminous, suspenseful, unforgettable, The Age of Miracles tells the haunting and beautiful story of Julia and her family as they struggle to live in a time of extraordinary change.
 
On an ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, 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 that seems filled with danger and loss, Julia also must face surprising developments in herself, and in her personal world—divisions widening between her parents, strange behavior by her friends, the pain and vulnerability of first love, a growing sense of isolation, and a surprising, rebellious new strength. With crystalline prose and the indelible magic of a born storyteller, Karen Thompson Walker gives us a breathtaking portrait of people finding ways to go on in an ever-evolving world.
 
“Gripping drama . . . flawlessly written; it could be the most assured debut by an American writer since Jennifer Egan’s Emerald City.”—The Denver Post
 
“Pure magnificence.”—Nathan Englander
 
“Provides solace with its wisdom, compassion, and elegance.”—Curtis Sittenfeld
 
“Riveting, heartbreaking, profoundly moving.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
 
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Ratings and reviews

Interesting premises, but the author seems to want to focus on the storyline of a rather dull and uninteresting teenage girl who has crush on a guy that doesn't notice her, instead of the cataclysmic event. It only mentions the slowing of the earth and its effects in brief moments, and deepest social changes we see are the extremely underwhelming clashes between the "real-timers" and the "clock-timers." For those in search of a more realistic apocalyptic book, I would suggest "life as we knew it"

Think Huxley's "Alas, Babylon" through the eyes of a child, with the focus not being the decay of society in the face of the Armageddon but rather growing up and learning about relationships, fear, and love. A true page-turner, I ripped through it in a couple of hours. I became quickly involved with the characters and the collapse of society and nature were intriguing. Good read!

I titled the review "not a bad read" because that's basically all I can truly say about it. I went into this book expecting to be captivated by this idea of the slowing of Earth's rotation that stretches days into weeks and causes countless repercussions. However, I was left with a "What else?" feeling like there was so much more that could have (perhaps should have?) been said but it just wasn't. All in all, this is a book that had great potential, but didn't quite live up to it what I expected....but still it's "not a bad read."

About the author

Karen Thompson Walker is the author of The Age of Miracles, which was a New York Times bestseller. She was born and raised in San Diego and is a graduate of UCLA and the Columbia MFA program.  A former editor at Simon & Schuster, she wrote The Age of Miracles in the mornings before work--sometimes while riding the subway. She currently lives in Iowa with her husband.