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)

Tough Read, But Worth It

I always feel foolish when I begin a book that I know is going to be sad based on the synopsis and reviews, proves itself to be sad from the very first page and continues incessantly in that same vein throughout the book, yet I still hang on hoping for just a glimmer of redeeming happiness until the bitter end. That is what happened with this book. There was absolutely nothing that even hinted that this might be a tragic story with a miraculously happy ending. Yet I continued to hope. Probably the main reason I have generally avoided the whole "end of the word" genre in the past.

This book was mercilessness in its doom and gloom. No matter how deeply you dug, there was no silver lining. However, that isn't to say it wasn't a well written book with an engaging young girl as the central character. The author did a great job of engaging the reader, keeping the interest level up with enough suggestions and hints, even if none of the hinted at or suggested positive events or actions ever happened. You knew none of them would come to fruition, but you had to hope.

My original complaint with the character was that she seemed far too mature for her years. She was only 11 when catastrophe struck, but she reacted like a person 3 times her age would be expected to react. However, as I progressed through the book I realized how quickly an 11 year old would be forced to grow up in that situation, so the further I got into the story the more natural her maturity level seemed.

I thought the author did a great job of presenting a plausible "end" to the world. Nothing that happened seemed totally unrealistic or didn't fit with the facts of the situation. The most disturbing concern I had with her scenario is none of the experts seemed to be able to explain what happened or why. You would like to think that in this age of science if a similar event occurred we might not be able to alter its course or stop it, but we could figure out what happened and why.

The author also did a good job of bringing the catastrophic event and its consequences down to a personal level so the reader could relate. Discussions about shifts or tears in the magnetic field may not make a great deal of sense, but a simple statement like "That was the last grape I ever ate." made the crisis relatable.

There is absolutely nothing uplifting about this story. But it is definitely worth reading. It makes you stop and think about the plausibility of such an event and how you would react in that situation.

The narrator on the audiobook did a very good job.

I highly recommend.

I feel it was all writen

Any additional comments?

It left me wanting more... a bit of a let down in the end and left me a bit sad... =( The story was good, and I did enjoy it.

Glad I gave it a chance

Based on some of the negative reviews, I almost passed this one up, but a few of the 4 and 5 star reviews convinced me otherwise. I'm glad they did, because I really loved this book and feel it deserves all of the positive press it's been getting this summer. TAOM "reads" like a tone poem -- slow, meditative, elegiac. The pace drags in a few places, but the author's luminous prose and evocative descriptions more than make up for any lack of action. The reader is OUTSTANDING, one of the best I've heard in a long time. She gives each character their own distinctive voice, and brings such care and thoughtfulness to her narration, you'd think it was her own novel. Overall, a great story and beautiful listening experience.

Unmet potential

This novel started strong, with a great premise, lovely prose, and much potential. Then it fizzled.
Julia is not a sympathetic character. The author completely fails to redeem her in any way. She is the epitome of a static character. Almost every supporting character evolves in some way, though not often by much and not those that might drive the story best.
The 'plot' fizzled. The subplots faded. Everything about this book is just...grey.
And... where are the miracles? The only miracle here is that it has any decent ratings.
The narrator did a commendable job with the material she had.
Overall, this was just sad.

global catastrophy in the eyes of a young girl.

i was troubled by some of the science, but this was addressed at the end. kinda.

performance was really good. im looking for more!

Interesting melding

What made the experience of listening to The Age of Miracles the most enjoyable?

Melding the young girl's experience growing up with the dramatic changes happening in the world held my attention and interest.

Coming of Age Novel with a Twist

What did you love best about The Age of Miracles?

I loved the way the author used the parallel stories of early adolescence with all the upheavals kids go through with the story of an upheaval in the way the Earth rotates. The author never explains the "Slowing" as Earth takes longer and longer to rotate on its axis but she makes it seem real in the context of the story. People are still people even in extraordinary times and find a way to deal with unimaginable events. I really liked main characters in the book.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I really liked main characters in the book but it is told through the voice of a young girl and I liked her the best.

Have you listened to any of Emily Janice Card’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I don't know if I have but she was very good.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I could have if I had that long to listen, it was entertaining.

Not sure I can measure up...

...to the excellent quality of the reviews that have already been written here about Age Of Miracles. Like others have commented, YA is not my usual genre, and if this book had not been marketed as speculative fiction, I would surely have missed it.

I'm very glad that I did not. Seeing the changing world through young Julia's eyes is quite remarkable, and the author maintains a rhythm and a style (throughout nearly all of the book) that is both consistent and powerful. "Of course," I eventually thought, "this is exactly the way it would happen. People would continue to live their lives, fall in love, argue with family members, interact with their pets, make plans, have dreams of the future." This simple and pure quality is what distinguishes The Age of Miracles from other dystopian fiction I have read, and it takes the voice of a child on the brink of adulthood to convey it.

I also agree, however, that the ending is abrupt, and damages the otherwise smooth flow of the novel. I'm not sure what else there was to say, but the transition of years could have been more artful, and I am surprised that her editors did not insist on it.

While this is not always the case, I am quite certain that I would not have enjoyed this book as much in print. Emily Janice Card takes on a challenging task and does it flawlessly. She is apparently in synch with the author's intentions and does not distort the characters with her own interpretations. I sometimes think that the worst readers sit down with a book, completely unfamiliar with it and its intentions, signal for the mike to go live, and start to read. Clearly, Ms. Card understood this book before she began, and it is a masterful performance.

To those of you who are undecided about spending a credit for this book, I urge you to do so. I seldom just sit and listen to a book, preferring to let the book accompany me as I do dishes, clean house, or paint. I sat and listened to this book until it was finished. I will not forget it soon.

This book made me think, but...

What I liked best about The Age of Miracles is that it made me think. Walker's plot is a very unique idea, that the Earth's rotation is decelerating and the book chronicles many of the environmental and societal problems caused by The Slowing through Julia, the 11 year-old narrator. I did have some problems with the lack of scientific details, inconsistencies (school remains open, utilities seem to work fine, but trees, whales, and birds are dying in massive numbers), and some things that just plain didn't make sense (wheat can no longer be grown, but peanut butter is available? Peanuts are a fairly temperature sensitive crop, and even with adequate water, temperatures above 95 degrees F can severely impair development of the crop.) What saves this from being a true disaster of a book is that Walker uses Julia to remind us that even in the face of a huge environmental disaster which we can't fix or control, life in some way still goes on. Julia poignantly talks about her loneliness, 6th grade, and embarrassment at not yet wearing a bra, while the Earth and society are changing in ways that can't be predicted.

This book made me think about the concept of time, and it probably didn't hurt that I saw The Fabric of Time Nova episode while I was reading the book. The book also made me think about our own environment, as The Slowing seemed to be loosely linked to climate change. It probably also didn't hurt that I read Bill McKibben's terrifying article in Rolling Stone while I was reading this book.

I give The Age of Miracles a solid 3.5, rounded up because it made me think about so many other connected concepts. I only wish that Walker had better written her really original idea.

I LOVED this story!

I thought it was a plausible apocalyptic-tale about what would happen if the Earth stopped spinning and despite the extreme premise, it didn’t feel far fetched!

It’s told from the point of view of an eleven year old girl growing up in this new changing world; examining her evolving relationship with her parents, her fragile friendships, her first boyfriend… Real life going on while the planet around them changes forever.

Many of the negative reviews say that this book was too much “coming of age Young Adult Fiction” and not enough “Science Fiction” but so what, it was still great!

I raced through it in one sitting, glued to the story and curious about what would happen next and how would it end… For me, it was a total page turner.