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Saturday, March 31, 2012

The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker

Breathtakingly good book.
11 year old Julia lives in Southern California, hanging out with her best friend Hanna and avoiding getting teased on the school bus when the earth starts spinning more slowly.
This was just hauntingly good- brilliant writing, a startlingly original voice, and one of the most moving coming of age stories I have ever read.

1 comment:

Brasil said...

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker is one of the rare debut novels that leads people to dream of becoming writers. Karen Thompson Walker's story has all the elements of a writer's dream come true from a bidding war between publishers, an advance in the millions of dollars (or pounds) to glowing advance reviews. In fact, the Guardian mentions these successes as an introduction to its review of The Age of Miracles. (You can read the Guardian's review here.) The book comes out on June 26 and tt's already on Amazon's list of books for June 2012.

I'd like to add my voice to those praising The Age of Miracles because of Walker's main character, eleven-year-old Julia. Julia opens up to us about the details of her life: friendships, crushes, uncertainties. While these basic topics could easily seem trivial, Julia's voice and innocence draw us in. We sympathize with Julia as she faces the loss of her best friend Hanna, as her world slowly comes apart both physically and socially. One of the saddest scenes is when Julia realizes that the slowing has affected schoolyard dynamics.