Book Review: The Age of Miracles

What a triumph this first novel is for Karen Thompson Walker!  The premise was thought-provoking and new and the characters were interesting and believable.  The world as we know it begins to spiral into something different and the reader feels like they are living through the crisis alongside the characters.

It feels like an ordinary Saturday morning for eleven-year-old Julia.  But nothing will ever be normal again.  Julia and her family watch as reporters alert the nation to a new dilemma.  The earth's rotation around the sun is slowing a little bit at a time.  The days and nights grow longer.  The government's plan of action is to retain schedules according to the 24-hour-day clocks.  Dissenters, called "real-timers" buck the system and spend their days according to the rise and fall of the sun.  Gravitational pulls are altered, leading to sickness and other imbalances.  Birds are dropping from the sky.  Whales are washing up on beaches.  Julia must come of age in this uncertain world and learn new truths about friends and relatives that she never expected.

I will admit, when I finished reading this book, it felt like I had to align myself back to reality.  That is how deeply the storytelling pulls you into the crisis-mode of this book.  I think the ending to the story felt abrupt, but it was quite an interesting tale.  Not over-the-top award-worthy (it has received more accolates than it deserves, I believe), but still a feat of stunning skill for a debut novel.