Author: Suzanne Collins
Translator: Won-yeol Lee
Publisher: Book Folio
Hardcover | 376 pages | 210*145mm
| Important! Please read before you order! |
| >>>This book is written in Korean. |
About This Book
Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister
in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United
States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were
defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send
one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The
Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation
may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's
sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place.
If there really are only seven original plots in the world, it's odd
that boy meets girl is always mentioned, and society goes bad and
attacks the good guy never is. Yet we have Fahrenheit 451, The Giver,
The House of the Scorpion -- and now, following a long tradition of
Brave New Worlds, The Hunger Games. Collins hasn't tied her future to a
specific date, or weighted it down with too much finger wagging. Rather
less 1984 and rather more Death Race 2000, hers is a gripping story set
in a postapocalyptic world where a replacement for the United States
demands a tribute from each of its territories: two children to be used
as gladiators in a televised fight to the death. Katniss, from what was
once Appalachia, offers to take the place of her sister in the Hunger
Games, but after this ultimate sacrifice, she is entirely focused on
survival at any cost. It is her teammate, Peeta, who recognizes the
importance of holding on to one's humanity in such inhuman
circumstances. It's a credit to Collins's skill at characterization that
Katniss, like a new Theseus, is cold, calculating and still likable. She
has the attributes to be a winner, where Peeta has the grace to be a
good loser. It's no accident that these games are presented as pop
culture. Every generation projects its fear: runaway science, communism,
overpopulation, nuclear wars and, now, reality TV. The State of Panem --
which needs to keep its tributaries subdued and its citizens complacent
-- may have created the Games, but mindless television is the real
danger, the means by which society pacifies its citizens and punishes
those who fail to conform. Will its connection to reality TV, ubiquitous
today, date the book? It might, but for now, it makes this the right
book at the right time. What happens if we choose entertainment over
humanity? In Collins's world, we'll be obsessed with grooming, we'll
talk funny, and all our sentences will end with the same rise as
questions. When Katniss is sent to stylists to be made more telegenic
before she competes, she stands naked in front of them, strangely
unembarrassed. They're so unlike people that I'm no more self-conscious
than if a trio of oddly colored birds were pecking around my feet, she
thinks. In order not to hate these creatures who are sending her to her
death, she imagines them as pets. It isn't just the contestants who risk
the loss of their humanity. It is all who watch. Katniss struggles to
win not only the Games but the inherent contest for audience approval.
Because this is the first book in a series, not everything is resolved,
and what is left unanswered is the central question. Has she sacrificed
too much? We know what she has given up to survive, but not whether the
price was too high. Readers will wait eagerly to learn more. Megan
Whalen Turner is the author of the Newbery Honor book The Thief and its
sequels, The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia. --Megan Whalen
Turner
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