A Constellation of Vital Phenomena in DC Public Library

May 03, 2013 Meg - A Bookish Affair rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Let me just say that "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" was such an amazing book. It is so hard to believe that this is Marra's debut novel. This is one of the books where I am having a hard time describing it to people just because I'm so worried about giving the story its due justice. The subject matter of this book centers around the Chechen wars in Russia in the 1990s and mid-2000s and focuses on several characters whose lives and destinies are interwoven with each other.

This book is heart ...more

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Jun 30, 2017 Kira rated it really liked it

A beautifully constructed and written story about horrifyingly ugly events. It manages to look the inhumanity of war in the face without sacrificing the humanity of its characters either to didacticism or to false redemption. Highly recommended.

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Jan 29, 2013 Alison rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, z-md-elibrary

It took me a while to get into this, but I did enjoy it. various characters in the novel take turns narrating, but it's done in a way that's easy to follow and makes sense for the progression of the plot. This also allows the author to slowly reveal that the characters are more connected than it may seem on the surface.

There were some parts that were hard to read (action in the novel takes place during the first and second Chechen wars, so there are a few rather gruesome torture passages) but t ...more

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Aug 29, 2014 Keets rated it it was amazing

Marra beautifully tells the story of the interconnected lives of people trying to survive in the midst of war and brutality. While their lives are simple, the story is not. Definitely a year jerker.

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