The Age of Miracles

Title: The Age of Miracles (Yang Pernah Ada)

Author: Karen Thompson Walker

Publisher: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama

Publication date: June 2013

Pages: 344

Seni dan takhayul selama lima ribu tahun akan mengatakan bahwa kegelapanlah yang paling menghantui kita. Bahwa malam adalah saat pikiran manusia paling rentan untuk diganggu. Tetapi banyak penelitian yang dilakukan setelah terjadinya perlambatan menunjukkan bahwa bukan kegelapan yang paling merusak suasana hati--melainkan terang.

In her debut novel, The Age of Miracles, Karen Thompson Walker delivered unique theme about the slowing of the earth rotation that cause days and night longer and finally disturbed all the scheduled rituals of daily life. The slowing has effect towards everything,  people get sick, crops begin to fail, the talk about the end of the world spread, possibility of emigrating to space or another planet also raise, etc.

Told from the perspective of Julia, an eleven-year-old girl who lives in California. Weeks before her birthday, the world undergoes an unexplained phenomena called "slowing". This condition leads to many unexpected things. Julia loses her best friends since some of them move to other places, her first love does not run well, her mother suffers of decease, her father also gets more impatience with his wife and many other things that quite hard to face for a teenager.

According to the author, she got the idea for the 'slowing' when she read about the 2004 Indonesia Tsunami that had caused the earth rotation to slow by some fractions. Since then on she started researching the effects of the slowing through internet. As a full timer she used to write this book in the morning before she went to office therefore it took four years to complete. But she said she enjoyed it since she considered the writing process as a type of meditation.

Named as one of the best books of 2012 by Publishers Weekly, O: The Oprah Magazine, People, Kirkus Review, Booklist, this lovely and simple writing will bring you lots of quiet moments to enjoy. Highly recommended.