Karen Thompson Walker Books

"It's never the disasters you see coming that finally come to pass-it's the ones you don't expect at all," says Julia, in this spellbinding novel of catastrophe and survival by a superb new writer. Luminous, suspenseful, unforgettable, 'The Age of Miracles' tells the haunting and beautiful story of Julia and her family as they struggle to live in a time of extraordinary change. On an ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, Julia awakes to discover that something has happened to the rotation of the earth. The days and nights are growing longer and longer; gravity is affected; the birds, the tides, human behavior, and cosmic rhythms are thrown into disarray. In a world that seems filled with danger and loss, Julia also must face surprising developments in herself, and in her personal world-divisions widening between her parents, strange behavior by her friends, the pain an vulnerability of first love, a growing sense of isolation, and a surprising, rebellious new strength. With crystalline prose and the indelible magic of a born storyteller, Karen Thompson Walker gives us a breathtaking portrait of people finding ways to go on in an ever-evolving world.

'It is never what you worry over that comes to pass in the end. The real catastrophies are always different - unimagined, unprepared for, unknown...' One morning, Julia and her parents wake up in their suburban home in California to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth is noticeably slowing. The enormity of this is almost beyond comprehension. And yet, even if the world is, in fact, coming to an end, as some assert, day-to-day life must go on. Julia, facing the loneliness and despair of an awkward adolescence, witnesses the impact of this phenomenon on the world, on the community, on her family and on herself.

"One night in an isolated college town in the hills of Southern California, a first-year student stumbles into her dorm room, falls asleep--and doesn't wake up. She sleeps through the morning, into the evening. Her roommate, Mei, cannot rouse her. Neither can the paramedics, nor the perplexed doctors at the hospital. When a second girl falls asleep, and then a third, Mei finds herself thrust together with an eccentric classmate as panic takes hold of the college and spreads to the town. A young couple tries to protect their newborn baby as the once-quiet streets descend into chaos. Two sisters turn to each other for comfort as their survivalist father prepares for disaster. Those affected by the illness, doctors discover, are displaying unusual levels of brain activity, higher than has ever been recorded before. They are dreaming heightened dreams--but of what?"--Back cover

Exploring themes of memory and identity, the story follows a woman with perfect recall who begins experiencing unsettling psychological symptoms after childbirth. As she grapples with blackouts and hallucinations, her unorthodox psychiatrist and a skeptical detective delve into her mysterious experiences. Jane's sudden disappearance and subsequent episodes lead to a deeper investigation into her psyche, challenging perceptions of reality and the mind. The narrative serves as a thought-provoking exploration of consciousness and the complexities of human relationships.

The site of an inhumation cemetery with remains of c. 124 individuals, mostly male and adult and with additional disarticulated bone. Radiocarbon dating demonstrates that the cemetery was in use, probably for disposing of the remains of those subject to judicial punishment , in both Saxon and medieval times.