Just Finished Reading: The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (FP: 2012)

Julia is just about to turn 12. Returning to school after the summer break she is expecting miracles in the year ahead when girls suddenly become women and boys inexplicably become men. But something even stranger is happening – the Earth’s rotation is slowing. First by unnoticed seconds and then by minute piled on minute both the days and nights are getting longer. By the time it becomes easily noticeable the scientific community go public and the government tell everyone to remain calm. So the panic buying starts and half of Julia’s schools student fail to turn up for class. But humans are adaptable creatures and we begin to adapt. Timetables are re-written on a weekly basis to keep pace with the lengthening day until they can no longer keep pace – so ‘clock-time’ is created and the fact of day or night is ignored at least by the majority. The minority – real-timers – plan their day by the sun rising and setting quickly claiming that the lengthening days are lengthening their lives. With days now hours and then tens of hours longer the consequences start piling up – millions of birds drop from the skies dead from unknown causes, people become ill with a range of symptoms presumed to be caused by circadian rhythm irregularities, ocean currents and tides change beaching hundreds of whales on shores across the world – and still the rotation slows a little more each day. Soon nights are cold enough to have snow in Julia’s Californian suburb and days are hot enough to kill all unprotected vegetation. Then, as the slowing continues, the tragedy gets worse as the magnetic core itself falters are the Earth’s magnetic field start to collapse. Is this the end of humanity?

For a first novel this is a highly accomplished piece of work. Everything is told and experienced from the narrators point of view – an 11 year old girl just beginning to make sense of the world, who wonders about the mutability of friendship, the fickleness of adult relationships and the mystery of boys. Meanwhile around her everything she thought she knew is slowly, very slowly being brought into question and almost imperceptibly falling apart. I honestly think this is one of the reading highlights of the year. One of the comments on the back calls it a ‘beautifully wrought novel’ and I definitely can’t disagree. It is simply a delight to read and beautiful is most definitely a word that comes to mind when reading it. Julia is a great, and more importantly, believable character full of her own hopes and fears for the future even before the world started ending. Seeing the events through her eyes and her experiences was a brilliant idea which works really well. We see the world end through ordinary, simple and trusting eyes rather than through the usual heroes, scientists or plucky survivor types. This grounds everything in place and makes the whole thing much more believable and, therefore, all the more emotionally intense. The feelings generated by this book stayed with me for days afterwards and I still find myself thinking about what I, or anyone, would do in this kind of situation. Beautifully haunting and a most definite recommendation.