"A Time of Miracles" is about the adventures of Gloria and Koumail. It starts in Caucasus, then Europe, and finally ends in France. Koumail is Gloria's true son but she changes the story because the real father of Koumail is Zemzem, who is a terorist. The book starts in a place called "The Complex" which is where refugees take shelter. When the militia make a sweep of the area Gloria and Koumail make a run for it, like all the other refugees. They end up in a town called Souma-Soula. To earn money for food he has to dig for light bulbs, the person who gives the money (Chief) wants the nickel inside it. Souma-Soula is also the place where he falls in love for the first time. He falls in love with the twin sisters of his friend Stambek, which are Sumi and Maya. One day Chief tells Stambek and Zoumail that there is no digging because there is a religious holiday. No money meant no food so Stambek took Koumail to the lake where they could fish. The only thing they end up catching is Koumail when he falls in the below zero water. Then they had to rush back so Koumail wouldn't die of pneumonia. The next day scientists arrive at the lake because of some mutated births, it turns out the lake was toxic. When the father of the twins hears about it he no longer allows them to meet/talk anymore. Gloria and Koumail move on to the port. They wait there because they were going to on a boat all the way to France. There he meets Fatima who introduces Allah to him. When fighting suddenly intensifies in the port all the refugees flee. Gloria abandons the plan of sailing there by boat, she decides to hitch hike their way to France. Gloria always manages to make "agreements" with the truckers to take them further and further. When they're at the final stretch in Germany the trucker tells Gloria to get coffee, while she's gone he quickly leaves, abandoning her. The trucker didn't know that Gloria had a child with her, which she had hidden in the trailer without telling the trucker. When Koumail gets to France customs finds him in the back of the trailer while looking for illegal drugs. This is how Koumail ends up in the center for Asylum seekers. It is here where he falls in love for the second time. He meets Prudence, also a refugee but from Liberia. They become completely inseparable and end up living together when they both get their legal papers. Then Koumail starts his quest to find Gloria. It takes him 3 years to finally find Gloria. She is held in a hospital in Tsibili. Gloria is in a bad condition. The "dog in her chest" which always scared Koumail ended up being what killed her. Toxic waste had found its way to her lungs and had caused it to deteriorate. Gloria also ends up telling Koumail the truth. That he was the son of Zemzem, not the miracle child which Gloria said she had saved on the Train. The passports she stole from a bag on the train. She also said that she was the one to create the bomb placed under the train. That Gloria's father wasn't the owner of a peach farm but a lowly peach picker. Koumail was shocked. Then the next day Gloria passes away. According to a gypsie he had met on the way Gloria would survive until he no longer needed her. He now had a life in France and longer needed GlorIia.-Ruben Backx A Time of Miracles is such a great story that I would compare it to any other tale that involves great sorrow and loss. Where is this story taking place? This story started in Republic of Georgia which is right underneath Russia and above Turkey. What would result if Gloria and Blaise stayed in Georgia? I would have to guess that they would have been taken by the soldiers and then the truth about Georgia and Blaise would have been found out much sooner.What is the theme of the book? The theme I took from this story was to keep walking to the horizon. Gloria says something to this effect every time something uproots them from their mini homes throughout the story and it is something Blaise comes to live by as he goes on throughout his life. What did I like best? What I liked most about the story is that there was a definitive ending. Some stories like this that involve war and bad times have endings where you don't know what happened to the person in the story or find out that they died, like the Diary of Anne Frank. I hated that book because I know that as she wrote those words hoping she was okay she still died. What inferences can I make about Gloria? Gloria is a very no nonsense woman and it is hard to tell who she is in the story. By seeing how well she takes care of Blaise, you can tell she cares for him but not so much as to be any relation. She tells Blaise of how he came to be with her in full detail and emphasizes telling stories in the right order and to honest. I believe that Gloria is a protector of those who can't protect themselves and teaches those to fend for themselves as soon as they are able to learn. What was the main idea? The main idea of this book was to tell the story of how difficult it is to be a refugee and the danger it makes for those who are only trying to survive. If anything it tells the readers that War and civil unrest is not a good thing for the country and its citizens. It takes many years for those affected to be okay and even then they may not be alright after what caused the unrest is over.
What do You think about Die Zeit Der Wunder (2011)?
the ending was sad and sweet. The cover is too adult for teen fiction.
—romano12
This was an interesting look at a modern war and its refugees.
—ibetara
