A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, Anthony Marra
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, Anthony Marra
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A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

Author: Anthony Marra

Narrator: Colette Whitaker

Unabridged: 12 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/07/2013


Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • A searing debut about the transcendent power of love in wartime, hailed as “an absolute masterpiece” (Sarah Jessica Parker, Entertainment Weekly)—from the renowned author of Mercury Pictures Presents
 
“Extraordinary . . . a twenty-first century War and Peace.”—The New York Times Book Review

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE JOHN LEONARD AWARD WINNER • ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal

In the final days of December 2004, in a small rural village in Chechnya, eight-year-old Havaa hides in the woods when her father is abducted by Russian forces. Fearing for her life, she flees with their neighbor Akhmed—a failed physician—to the bombed-out hospital, where Sonja, the one remaining doctor, treats a steady stream of wounded rebels and refugees and mourns her missing sister. Over the course of five dramatic days, Akhmed and Sonja reach back into their pasts to unravel the intricate mystery of coincidence, betrayal, and forgiveness that unexpectedly binds them and decides their fate.
 
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Chicago Tribune, NPR, Kansas City Star, San Francisco Chronicle, The Christian Science Monitor, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Kirkus Reviews

About The Author

Stegner Fellow, Iowa MFA, and winner of The Atlantic's Student Writing Contest, ANTHONY MARRA has won the Pushcart Prize, the Narrative Prize, and a scholarship to Bread Loaf. He has studied, resided, and traveled throughout Eastern Europe. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is his first novel.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Katie on February 15, 2017

As well as being the most cleverly structured novel I’ve read all year A Constellation of Vital Phenomenon also features some of the most memorable characters. Ostensibly the novel is set in Chechnya though in many ways the novel depicts a generic modern war and the terrifying lawlessness that preva......more

Goodreads review by Violet on January 31, 2018

Anthony Marra’s Chechnya is every bit as bleak and brutal as the post-apocalyptic world Cormac McCarthy creates in The Road. Life is valued by the governing powers as cheaply as in the Nazi concentration camps. The novel isn’t so much about the wars in Chechnya per se as how individuals relate to ea......more

Goodreads review by Steve on February 15, 2017

We all know, as William Tecumseh Sherman once noted, that “War is Hell!” Later, Jean-Paul Sartre concluded that “Hell is other people.” It therefore stands to reason that war is other people. Good thing for me that it's about others because what Marra described in this book sounded awful. We got cho......more


Quotes

“A flash in the heavens that makes you look up and believe in miracles. . . . Here, in fresh, graceful prose, is a profound story that dares to be as tender as it is ghastly, a story about desperate lives in a remote land that will quickly seem impossibly close and important. . . . I haven’t been so overwhelmed by a novel in years. At the risk of raising your expectations too high, I have to say you simply must read this book.”The Washington Post

“Marra is a brisk and able storyteller, and he moves deftly between a number of characters who are drawn into contact by the war. . . . The writing is vivid throughout.”The New Yorker

“Over and over again, this is an examination of the ways in which many broken pieces come together to make a new whole. In exquisite imagery, Marra tends carefully to the twisted strands of grace and tragedy. . . . Everything in A Constellation of Vital Phenomena . . . is dignified with a hoping, aching heartbeat.”The San Francisco Chronicle

“Marra is trying to capture some essence of the lives of men and women caught in the pincers of a brutal, decade-long war, and at this he succeeds beautifully. . . . His storytelling impulses are fed by wellsprings of generosity. . . . [The] ending is almost certain to leave you choked up and, briefly at least, transformed by tenderness.”The Wall Street Journal

“A powerful tale . . . rivals anything Michael Ondaatje has written in its emotional force. . . . There are many reasons to read A Constellation of Vital Phenomena . . . to marvel at the lack of fear in a writer so young. To read a book that can bring tears to your eyes and force laughter from your lungs. . . . But the one I kept returning to, the best reason to read this novel, is that this story reminds us how senseless killing often wrenches kindness through extreme circumstances.”Boston Globe

“Excellent . . . [A] grave, complex, elegant exploration of how war and occupation warp the human psyche.”New York magazine

“Amazing . . . brilliant . . . one of the most accomplished and affecting books I’ve read in a very long time.”—Meg Wolitzer, author of The Interestings, for NPR

“Many people can write beautifully, but few manage to create a whole that is more valuable than the sum of its parts. Marra does this in spades. It is a brilliant book.”—Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of State of Wonder

“The most moving book I’ve read in years . . . A timeless tragedy about the victims of war.”Washingtonian

“This novel, full of humanity and hope, ultimately leaves you uplifted. Constellation deserves to be on the short list for every major award. It’s an absolute masterpiece.”—Sarah Jessica Parker for Entertainment Weekly

“Marra is not looking to explain the inexplicable. He’s not laying out politics, his book does not run on fear or horror. He is, in capturing the experiences that form lives, telling what feels like a very real story set in Chechnya.”Denver Post