Author: Anthony Marra
Year published: 2014
Category: Adult fiction (historical); audiobook
Pages: 416 pages
Rating: 4 out of 5
Location: (my 2025 Google Reading map): Chechnya
Summary: In a small rural village in Chechnya, eight-year-old Havaa watches from the woods as Russian soldiers abduct her father in the middle of the night and then set fire to her home. When their lifelong neighbor Akhmed finds Havaa hiding in the forest with a strange blue suitcase, he makes a decision that will forever change their lives. He will seek refuge at the abandoned hospital where the sole remaining doctor, Sonja Rabina, treats the wounded.
For Sonja, the arrival of Akhmed and Havaa is an unwelcome surprise. Weary and overburdened, she has no desire to take on additional risk and responsibility. But over the course of five extraordinary days, Sonja’s world will shift on its axis and reveal the intricate pattern of connections that weaves together the pasts of these three unlikely companions and unexpectedly decides their fate. A story of the transcendent power of love in wartime, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is a work of sweeping breadth, profound compassion, and lasting significance.
Review: My daughter sent me a text recently with a link to this book and the word "read." Well, she commanded, so I did. Actually, I listened. And I am glad that I did.
This novel is a study of people under war time conditions (and those years in between and following). How are towns affected: the homes, the pets, the food supply, the hospitals, and other infrastructure. But more deeply, it is a study of people: refugees, doctors, farmers, and children. What constitutes a family--the one you were born into or the one you form when life is difficult?
The author did a really good job of showing the hardness of life, how we are affected by betrayal and hardship, and what strength we have when we need it. He also showed the weakness of others, the lure of bribery, and how they give in to authority even when it's wrong.
The second half of this book pulled me in more than the first half; I that that's when I got into the characters more. There are so many characters, which I find more difficult in an audio book than when I read a book in print. It took me a while to keep them all straight in my head since my reading happened in spurts that were too short to fully absorb it all at first.
Though it is about a war-torn country, I would still call this a quiet read since it's really a character-driven novel. Yes, there is plot, but the characters are really the central figures and emphasis. I also really liked that I learned about Chechnya, it's history, it's people, etc.
Challenges for which this counts:
- Cover Love--a stormy or foggy scene
- Literary Escapes--Chechnya
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