A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
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  • Published: 4 February 2014
  • ISBN: 9780770436421
  • Imprint: Random House US Group
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 416
  • RRP: $38.00
Categories:

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

Formats & editions
EBook
16 May 2013
Audiobook
3 Jul 2014
Paperback
3 Mar 2014
Paperback
4 Feb 2014
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A brilliant debut novel that brings to life an abandoned hospital where a tough-minded doctor decides to harbor a hunted young girl, with powerful consequences

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
  • Published: 4 February 2014
  • ISBN: 9780770436421
  • Imprint: Random House US Group
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 416
  • RRP: $38.00
Categories:

About the author

Anthony Marra

Anthony Marra's first novel was A Constellation of Vital Phenomena (2013), which won an array of prizes including the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize, the Barnes and Noble Fiction Discover Award, the Grand Prix des Lectrices de Elle and the Athens Prize for Literature, and appeared on more than twenty Books of the Year lists. This was followed by The Tsar of Love and Techno. A Granta Best of Young American Novelists 2017, a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop,a Guggenheim Fellow and Whiting Award recipient, Marra lives in Oakland, California, and teaches at Stanford University. Visit http://anthonymarra.net/.

portrait photo of Anthony Marra

Also by Anthony Marra

The Tsar of Love and Techno
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Praise for A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

    
Praise for A Constellation of Vital Phenomena:

  • "Simply spectacular. Not since Everything Is Illuminated have I read a first novel so ambitious and fully realized." --Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of State of Wonder
  • "Remarkable and breathtaking...A spellbinding elegy for an overlooked land engulfed by an oft forgotten war...Marra conjures fragile and heartfelt characters whose fates interrogate the very underpinnings of love and sacrifice." --Adam Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan Master's Son
  • "Powerful, convincing, beautifully realized--it's hard to believe that A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is a first novel. Anthony Marra is a writer to watch and savor." --T. C. Boyle, New York Times bestselling author of When the Killing's Done and The Women