The Age of Miracles

Par Karen Thompson Walker, Doubleday

«"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.»

Petit morceau d'anticipation plausible et inquiétant en ces temps où la Terre se dérègle de plus en plus. La narration fine et juste ouvre l'horizon du lecteur vers un possible dérangeant, à travers les petits et les grands soucis du quotidien d'une adolescente: l'amitié, l'amour, l'école, mais aussi la maladie, la trahison et la mort. Bouleversant les repères sociaux et les «acquis» scientifiques, l'intrigue installe doucement, mais sournoisement, le doute, poursuivant une lente et inexorable descente vers l'inévitable. Un roman vertigineux qui ne laisse pas l'esprit tranquille...

Lili lui donne: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

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