Nothing
Author(s): Janne Teller
This modern-day Lord of the Flies" is a haunting existential novel, both award-winning and and provocative. Now in paperback as part of the Atheneum Collection!"Nothing matters."
"From the moment you are born, you start to die."
"The Earth is 4.6 billion years old. You'll live to be a maximum of one hundred. Life isn't worth the bother!"
So says Pierre Anthon when he decides there is no meaning to life, leaves his seventh-grade classroom, climbs a plum tree, and stays there. His friends and classmates cannot get him to come down, not even by pelting him with rocks. So to prove to him that there is a meaning to life, they set out to give up things of importance, challenging one another to make increasingly serious sacrifices. The pile is started with a lifetime's collection of Dungeons & Dragons books, a fishing rod, a pair of green sandals, a pet hamster--but then, as each demand becomes more extreme, events take a morbid twist. And what if, after all these sacrifices, the pile is still not meaningful enough to bring Pierre Anthon down?
Product Information
The seventh graders of Taering School are much like any others, until Pierre Anthon has an existential crisis, climbs a tree and refuses to come back to school. The other students can't live their lives as usual with one of their classmates sitting in a tree, pelting them with unripe plums every morning and yelling, "In a few years you'll be dead and forgotten and diddly-squat, nothing." Determined to prove to Pierre Anthon that life has plenty of meaning, the students embark on a dire quest. Over the course of many months, each student is required to give up something full of meaning, something chosen by the previous sacrificing student. The sacrificial items start small--a favorite pair of shoes, a fishing pole--but become more and more dreadful as the pile of meaning grows. Quietly and without fanfare, the students' adventure develops into one that rivals "Lord of the Flies" for horror. The matter-of-fact, ruthlessly logical amorality of these teens is chilling. Gorgeously lyrical,
General Fields
- :
- : Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
- : Atheneum Books for Young Readers
- : 0.199581
- : 01 April 2012
- : .5 Inches X 5.875 Inches X 8.25 Inches
- : United Kingdom
- : 01 May 2012
- : books
Special Fields
- : Janne Teller
- : Paperback / softback
- : 00
- : English
- : 839.8138
- : 240
