The Age of Miracles

A Novel

By: Karen Walker

Narrated by: Emily Janice Card

Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Nominee, Science Fiction, 2013

With a voice as distinctive and original as that of The Lovely Bones, and for the fans of the speculative fiction of Margaret Atwood, Karen Thompson Walker's The Age of Miracles is a luminous, haunting, and unforgettable debut novel about coming of age set against the backdrop of an utterly altered world. "It still amazes me how little we really knew... Maybe everything that happened to me and 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."

On a seemingly ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, Julia and her family awake to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. The days and nights grow longer and longer, gravity is affected, the environment is thrown into disarray. Yet as she struggles to navigate an ever-shifting landscape, Julia is also coping with the normal disasters of everyday life - the fissures in her parents marriage, the loss of old friends, the hopeful anguish of first love, the bizarre behavior of her grandfather who, convinced of a government conspiracy, spends his days obsessively cataloging his possessions. As Julia adjusts to the new normal, the slowing inexorably continues.

©2012 Karen Thompson Walker (P)2012 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

Advance praise for The Age of Miracles
: "[A] gripping debut....Thompson's Julia is the perfect narrator...While the apocalypse looms large-has in fact already arrived-the narrative remains fiercely grounded in the surreal and horrifying day-to-day and the personal decisions that persist even though no one knows what to do. A triumph of vision, language, and terrifying momentum, the story also feels eerily plausible, as if the problems we've been worrying about all along pale in comparison to what might actually bring our end."( Publishers Weekly)

"In Walker's stunning debut, a young California girl coming of age in a dystopian near future confronts the inevitability of change on the most personal level as life on earth withers. She goes through the trials and joys of first love. She begins to see cracks in her parent's marriage and must navigate the currents of loyalty and moral uncertainty. She faces sickness and death of loved ones. ...Julia's life is shaped by what happens in the larger world, but it is the only life she knows, and Walker captures each moment, intimate and universal, with magical precision. Riveting, heartbreaking, profoundly moving. ( Kirkus Reviews)

"What a remarkable and beautifully wrought novel. In its depiction of a world at once utterly like and unlike our own, The Age of Miracles is so convincingly unsettling that it just might make you stockpile emergency supplies of batteries and bottled water. It also - thank goodness - provides great solace with its wisdom, its compassion, and the elegance of its storytelling." (Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Prep)

Depressing

Would you listen to The Age of Miracles again? Why?

Probably not. The story is pretty straightforward and there aren't many plot twists or subtleties that you would miss the first time.

What did you like best about this story?

Perspective of the world ending from a teenage girl. I've never read a book from this perspective before so it was that angle that kept me wanting to learn what happens next and how she would react to it. Most sci-fi stories are from a male perspective or an adult female so I found it very interesting.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Find your happy place, you're gonna need it.

Any additional comments?

Wow this was a depressing book. There just wasn't a ray of light all the way through it. Just one speed bump after another on the downward spiral to the end of the world. Pretty much any other book would have ended with a happy note like a reversal of the catastrophe, or at least it stopping and establishing a new normal. Not this one, there's every indication that the world is doomed, it's just a matter of time. Definitely worth the listen, but brace yourself.

Good narrator, Ok story

Would you listen to The Age of Miracles again? Why?

No, I already listened to it.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Longer, more involved characterization -- have the girl grow older, have the world go deeper into the slowing

Which scene was your favorite?

When the girl and Seth Moreno get close

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No, although finding the Grandfather dead was very sad and poignant. Well written part.

Any additional comments?

none.

Great book even for adults

Quite a story. Engrossing and something you think about even when you stop reading each day.

Too Accurate To Be Captivating

Karen Thompson Walker animates her characters using such brilliant gestures that I felt transported into her protagonist, Julia's slowly changing world. Unfortunately, when the earth's rotation slows down, so does the plot. The excitement of the premise is intentionally set in the background while 10-year-old Julia frets about fashion, friendships, and boys. The changes in the length of a day are so gradual that they don't really matter to the story, just the setting. Every major action the characters made could have occurred in a novel without the earth's slowing. Greater spans of time between chapters would have made for a much more dramatic/ epic narrative. Still, at the heart of the novel is a delicate girls heart: just as fragile and small a thing as our worlds place in the universe, but equally beautiful and important.

Wonderful story, beautiful performance!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The melancholy beauty of the entire novel was so enhanced by the emotional, appropriate and so perfect performance that it felt more like a play than a book. Very wonderful, I have listened many times!

Premise is fascinating

The premise of the book--time out of whack, living day for night and night for day, and "Circadia"--really stuck with me. I liked the narrator, and the narration, but sometimes wished I could hear another (more mature) perspective.

Age of Miracles

pretty cool must pay attention to understand the whole story it's very interesting how this all happens while the earth stays on its designated path. I liked it was coming from an 11 year old girl as she grew up. The narrator did a wonderful job keeping me involved.

Speechless

This book was absolutely amazing. I would recommend it to people of any ages. It has a lot of detailed descriptions of everything that is going on. All in all this book is amazing and I recommend it to people of all ages. An amazing book! Once you pick it up and start reading you can't stop!!!!!!

Coming of age when the world changes quickly ..

Would you listen to The Age of Miracles again? Why?

Yes I would, I would listen to it with my teenagers, or listen to it to prompt discussions.

What did you like best about this story?

I loved that it was told from the perspective of a 11yo girl...growing up with all the pre teen social pains and dreams into the age of miracles.

What does Emily Janice Card bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

She brings to life all the characters. She dramatizes the world's changes in just the right tone.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The Slowing

There Is Already a Better Version of This Book

Consider instead, Life As We Knew It, a YA novel from 2006 with a nearly identical premise and a much better-developed arc in terms of the tension and feeling of impending and realistic peril.

I am almost tempted to reread The Age of Miracles, even though I didn't like it, to see if it was the performance rather than the writing which imparted such a wistful, infuriatingly passive quality to the main character.

Walker relies a lot on descriptive generalizations rather than creating scenes, often referencing the future ("That would be the last time I ate a grape..") which took me out of the story. I also felt she didn't get the age of her character accurately. Julia's concerns did not seem like those of an eleven year old.

I can't recommend this book, at least in its audio book form.