A Time of Miracles by Anne-Laure Bondoux, translated from the French by Y. Maudet, Random House Inc., 2009, 180 pp, $16.99, Award Winning, ISBN: 978-0-385-90777-4
What would you do for someone you love? What hardships would you willingly endure to ensure that someone else's life was better than yours? What would you do when faced with despair at every turn?
This powerful story of a young boy and his adult companion make these questions tear at your heart at almost every turning of a page. I found myself stopping, taking a deep breath often just to keep my heart from racing with anxiety as the narrator, a young boy named Koumail and his companion Gloria grapple with life threatening adventures as they try to survive during the war during the collapse of the Soviet Union. As they travel across the land in the desperate attempt to reach a better life in another country the story of the past follows them at every turn. Koumail, according to Gloria came into her life as a baby, one of the only survivors of a gruesome train wreck. As his mother lay dying in the train, she begged Gloria to raise her son, Blaise for her and some return him to his homeland of France to live a safe and prosperous life. Gloria dedicates her life to Koumail and even in times of complete poverty, danger, and despair gives Koumail the gift of feeling "special" and of being protected even while others were dying around them. Gloria created this ring of love around him through her profound words and unrelentless dedication to hope.
As any mother longs to believe, Gloria convinces Koumail that together than can overcome any obstacle. She lifts Koumail at every setback to rise above and "fight against (despair)...that she has a cure." " As long as you stay close to me, nothing bad will happen to you, OK?"
Set in war torn regions of the Soviet Union, this story of survival and love is not for the weak at heart. As we partake in this journey through Koumail's eyes we see bombings, starving refugees, disease, poisons and human suffering at a variety of physical and emotional levels - and all from the vantage point of a young boy. The time is the early 1990s, for many young readers, before they were born, yet close enough in history that the shock of "how could this happen" can undoubtedly not be far from their thoughts. The harsh reality of war is carefully and very effectively woven among this tale of unending love between an adult and their "child" whether that child is born into the family or "adopted" as Koumail was by Gloria.
A long the way we Koumail suffers from his first and second pangs of young love and our heart seems to quickly remember it's own fault lines of this stingy right of passage. Although we are only with these characters for such a short time, we, like Koumail, seem to fall in love at first sight. One character that pulls us and Koumail in immediately is Fatima , who has voluntarily blinded herself to the atrocities that surround them by simply refusing to open her eyes. "...I wonder what color Fatima's eyes are. I'd also like to know what she sees behind the curtain of her eyelids...Images of her past? Her father's blood?Just darkness? I don't dare ask her any questions. We all live with our ghosts, and I know you can't disturb them too much, otherwise the sorrow that lies in our chests will wake up."
I found The physical and emotional experience that this short story evokes is testimony to the talent of this writer who somehow gives us a character for just a few pages, but somehow makes us feel as if we have known them forever.
How is it that we can become so connected so quickly to Koumail and his seemingly doomed companions? How is it that we can care so deeply about a place and time for many young adults may seem so far from reality? I encourage you to read and find out - it is worth it.
This story may be short, but the characters are so entrancing that you may find yourself craving for more time with them all. Hoping that I can find a glimpse of any of the characters in A Time of Miracles, I just ordered another award winning book by Anne-Laure Bondoux, The Killer's Tears . To read a review of this book please visit http://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm/book_number/1757/the-killer's-tears.
To learn more about this intriguing author and speak french, visit her official website at http://www.bondoux.net/
or see a brief biography in english here http://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm/author_number/1277/anne-laure-bondoux
This book may also make you want to learn more about the historical context that this story in - the fall of the Soviet Union and the chaos that was unleashed on so many common people. This video is a song that gives a quick overview of the historical events that took place during this time and is appropriate for adults and young adults alike http://www.history.com/topics/soviet/videos#the-fall-of-the-soviet-union.
