The Age of Miracles, an apocalyptic sci-fi novel written by Karen Thompson Walker, is headed to the big screen.
According to Deadline, River Road Entertainment has already optioned the screen rights for Walker’s debut book – before it even hits store shelves on June 26, 2012. The official synopsis of the novel is as follows:
“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.”
Simon and Schuster publishing director Suzanne Baboneau recently termed the long-awaited Miracles “a novel of big ideas, but absolutely grounded,” written with crystal clarity and beautiful rhythm.
“The book requires a suspension of disbelief – yet at the same time you look out of the window right now and you think, ‘this could happen,'” she told The Guardian. Meanwhile, an early Publishers Weekly review posted on Amazon described Thompson’s Julia as the “perfect” protagonist and 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.”
The Age of Miracles screenplay will be penned by Hanna scribe Seth Lochhead and produced by River Road principal Bill Pohlad, who is nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award for Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life.
Note: Walker’s “The Age of Miracles” is not to be confused with “Age of Miracles” by sci-fi master John Brunner (who also wrote The Sheep Look Up), which was originally titled The Day of the Star Cities.
