The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
The Age of Miracles is
a unique book, the narrator is an older version of the main character Julia
looking back on her middle school years when things change. What makes it
different is that it’s not just her world changing but everyone’s. The Earth’s
rotation has started to slow. Days and nights stretch longer and longer eventually
reaching upwards of sixty hours each. A long drawn out ending of the world.
The science in this book is basically non-existent. The
addition of it could have made the book a much more interesting read. That’s
not to say that it isn’t a good book. Give the science a pass and enjoy it for
the coming of age story it is.
The writing is eloquent and there are many quotable bits. My
favorite passage refers to the title of the book:
"This was middle
school, the age of miracles, the time when kids shot up three inches over the
summer, when breasts bloomed from nothing, when voices dipped and dove. Our
first flaws were emerging, but they were being corrected. Blurry vision could
be fixed invisibly with the magic of contact lenses. Crooked teeth were pulled
straight with braces. Spotty skin could be chemically cleared. Some girls were
turning beautiful. A few boys were growing tall. I knew I still looked like a
child."
According to IMDB there is a movie adaptation in the works.
“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. -Amazon Description
The book is available through the Lake County Library System in both book and audiobook formats. And through Lake County Library Overdrive ebook format is available.
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