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A Constellation of Vital Phenomena: A Novel Paperback – Deckle Edge, February 4, 2014

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Anthony Marra (Author)
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4.4 out of 5 stars 949 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Hogarth; Reprint edition (February 4, 2014)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0770436420
  • ISBN-13: 978-0770436421
  • Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1.1 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (949 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsA Vitally Phenomenal Debut
By Jill I. Shtulman TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on January 27, 2013
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Every now and then, a book comes along that restores my faith in the future of the novel all over again. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is such a book.

How can a debut novelist write like this lyrically and searingly? Anthony Marra has "the gift" and his work is more assured than writers who have toiled for years.

I'd like to say I was immediately captured by his novel, but alas, that wouldn't be true. My lack of familiarity with war-torn Chechnya - indeed, with Russian history - distanced me at first. A number of original and whimsical characters were woven into his rich tapestry of words, and for many pages, I wondered just why such-and-such character was being portrayed in great detail.

But then it all started coming together, and - wow oh wow. The title comes from a description of life in a medical book: Life is a constellation of vital phenomena - organization, irritability, movement, growth, reproduction, adaptation. A careful reading reveals that for this community of characters, the description is quite apt.

The novel primarily takes place throughout a decade - from 1996 to 2004 - and a line graph at the top of each chapter centers the reader in the timeline. There are three key characters - Akhmed, an incompetent doctor with a good heart...Sonja, a bone-weary surgeon who labors each day at a bombed-out hospital that serves as the only respite for those who have been injured...and Havaa, an eight-year-old girl who has already been forced to endure and lose too much.

Many other secondary characters populate this epic tale, including a beautifully-detailed portrait of a damaged man who has turned informer: Ramzan.Read more ›
37 Comments 276 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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3.0 out of 5 starsBeautifully written and evocative. I just didn't quite "get it" as much as others...
By Larry Hoffer on May 21, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
If you read as much as I do (or even if you don't), you're bound to come across a book that is hailed by literary critics and readers as one of the greatest things ever, but no matter how much you try and read it and are determined to love it, it just doesn't click for you. I know that happens most often with the classics, but it certainly happens with "regular" fiction and nonfiction as well.

Anthony Marra's debut novel, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, is such a book for me. Reviews have hailed it as everything from "brilliant" and "haunting" to "a flash in the heavens that makes you look up and believe in miracles."

One day, in a snowy village in war-torn Chechnya, eight-year-old Havaa hides as Russian soldiers abduct her father, Dokka, in the middle of the night. Their kindly neighbor, Akhmed, fears the worst when he sees the soldiers setting fire to Dokka's house as they take him away, but he rescues Havaa from her hiding place. Fearing she will be discovered, Akhmed takes Havaa to the local hospital, abandoned but for one doctor, Sonja, who alone (with the help of one cantankerous nurse) has been treating all of the victims of war and illness that enter the dilapidated hospital's doors. Akhmed, who was a medical student at the very bottom of his class, promises to work as a doctor with Sonja to ensure Havaa is provided for.

Sonja comes with her own set of issues, most notably her sister, Natasha, who has continuously disappeared and reappeared in Sonja's life, but has been missing for some time. And Akhmed is caring for his own bedridden wife, and worrying about his neighbor and childhood friend, who is an informant for the Russians.Read more ›
13 Comments 191 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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5.0 out of 5 stars"Life: a constellation of vital phenomena"
By Evelyn Getchell TOP 500 REVIEWER on January 30, 2013
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
What is life? What is the quality that distinguishes a vital, functioning human being from a dead body? Every study of human anatomy and physiology begins with these questions. There is no short scientific answer or specific formula for life because no single criterion adequately describes life. Rather life is best defined by its most essential characteristics - organization, irritability, movement, growth, reproduction, adaptation...a constellation of vital phenomena. And this constellation of vital phenomena is the essential criteria with which Anthony Marra gives life to his first novel.

This is a peerless literary accomplishment of the first order, a work of brilliance, a book of exceptional beauty and this reviewer is hard pressed to articulate what an extraordinary reading experience it has provided her. Almost Tolstoyan in register and range I can hardly believe that A CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA is Anthony Marra's debut novel!

Young writers who do well on their first literary effort are often compared to the traditions of more established novelists but Marra needs no such comparison. With CONSTELLATION he has already established his own tradition.

With an artistic attention to language, structure and detail, he has created an epic saga that charts the rugged political landscape of the often forgotten country of Chechnya while also tracing the fragile contours of the human heart. This is a tale of historic fact and creative imagination that teases, provokes, challenges and illuminates an emotional map of sadness and hope, cruelty and love...emotional conflict set against a backdrop of real political and social conflict.Read more ›
16 Comments 104 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 starsI was bored, confused and found it overly difficult to follow ...

I listened to this on Audible and returned it with 5 hours left. I was bored, confused and found it overly difficult to follow the sequence of characters and time. Read more

Published 1 day ago by Jeanenne M.
5.0 out of 5 starsBeautifully written tragic story of Chechnya

Anthony Marra writes with such eloquence and clarity, sharing the emotions of his characters with us so that we care about them, and we understand their conflicted insides. Read more

Published 6 days ago by D. Whitehill
5.0 out of 5 starsA must read

A must read in my opinion. Excellent writing. Great story about a part of the world I was not familiar with. Heart wrenching and so real. Oppression and war are a horrible thing. Read more

Published 11 days ago by Lookin for comfort
5.0 out of 5 starsBreathtakingly beautiful

This heartbreaking story brings to life, and to death, the realities of humanity and inhumanity rolled into one. Not soon forgotten.

Published 15 days ago by Pamela G French
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Excellent

Published 17 days ago by Mele
2.0 out of 5 starsCan't Read about This War.

Dark, dismal, and depressing. Detail descriptions of landmine-caused amputations & brutal torture not for me. Read more

Published 20 days ago by karen
4.0 out of 5 starsIt was good. I got pretty confused because of the back ...

It was good. I got pretty confused because of the back and forth on the timeline. My brain couldn't readjust very easily.

Published 20 days ago by C. Schlosser
5.0 out of 5 starsLOVED this book

LOVED this book. I learned so much about Russia during a very modern time, and the characters were so nicely developed and true to themselves. Read more

Published 22 days ago by ARaisinGrl
4.0 out of 5 starsWar sucks!

Beautifully written but hard to read. Cruelty amidst tenderness. All too real. How different is our world today? Not very.

Published 24 days ago by Anthony Juliano
5.0 out of 5 starsThis is a wonderful and strange story

An unsettling juxtaposition of man's inhumanity to man with sensitive and poignant interactions among others. One of my best reads this last year.

Published 24 days ago by Peter Wrege

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