Review: I've been so looking
forward to reading The Age of Miracles after the publishing
deal was announced and it didn't disappoint.
The story is told in
retrospect by Julia who tells the reader about what happened when she
was 11 and the year following it. Set about ten years in the future,
it is revealed by scientists that the earth's rotation is slowing.
Just a few minutes at first but with no obvious cause and the days
continue to lengthen. Initially the world copes by sticking to living
in the day sleeping in the dark but then a decision is made to stick
with a twenty-four hour day, “clock time”, ignoring the
light/darkness issue. A splinter group forms of “real timers” who
try and stick to the sleep/dark, live/light routine which causes
discontent. The “slowing” begins to affect the plants and animals
and then humans...
Meanwhile Julia's life
undergoes significant milestones – the change in friendships, the
possibility of first love, loss and loneliness and disappointments.
The Age of Miracles
is an adult fiction book which can be read by teenagers, no problem
but will appeal more to an older audience I think, one that has had a
few years of life experience and to whom age eleven is a nostalgic
while ago!
It has a conversational
and matter of fact tone which draws you in and you just want to read
a bit more. There is a science-fiction backdrop but this is a
coming-of-age story and the things that happen to Julia may have
happened without the catalyst of the slowing but the danger the earth
and the human race is in, ups the pressures on everyone.
I really loved The
Age of Miracles and it's one that's stayed with me. I look forward to seeing what Karen Thompson
Walker writes next.
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