With a voice as distinctive and original as that of and for the fans of the speculative fiction of Margaret Atwood, Karen Thompson Walkers is a luminous, haunting, and unforgettable debut novel about coming of age set against the backdrop of an utterly altered world.

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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 lifethe 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.

Praise for

A stunner.Justin Cronin

A genuinely moving tale that mixes the real and surreal, the ordinary and the extraordinary, with impressive fluency and flair.Michiko Kakutani,

Gripping drama . . . flawlessly written; it could be the most assured debut by an American writer since Jennifer Egans .

If you begin this book, youll be loath to set it down until youve reached its end.

Provides solace with its wisdom, compassion, and elegance.Curtis Sittenfeld