Karen Thompson Walker has written a great first novel. Ordinarily, I would not have picked up this book to read, but I had seen a recent ad in the NYT declaring this was a must read book for this summer.
Set in the present in California, the book is narrated by Julia, an eleven-year old. She is an only child of a doctor and a former actress. A quiet not very popular kid, she has one friend Hanna, who is a Mormon.
One day, without any previous signs, the rotation of the earth slows. What results is a story of a dystopian future and how it affects the lives of people in Julia’s world. The author does not dwell on the science of this “slowing,” but does detail what happens to the earth–plant life, animals, environment, etc. She focuses on how the society is divided into those who follow “real time,” and those that follow the government program of “clock time.” By the end of the story, there are 48 continuous hours of daylight, followed by 48 hours of darkness.
Although it is a frightening story, it is also a wonderfully-written, affirming novel of Julia and how she comes of age in a world like ours, but thankfully, at least for now, not like ours.