Wasteland

Welcome to the wasteland

At fifteen,
the citizens of Prin marry.

At seventeen,
they reproduce.

And at nineteen,
they die.

And an early death isn't the only doom waiting around the corner. Everyone is forced to live under the looming threat of rampant disease and brutal attacks by the Variants-hermaphroditic outcasts that live on the outskirts of Prin.

Esther thinks there's more to life than toiling at harvesting, gleaning, and excavating, day after day under the relentless sun, just hoping to make it to the next day.

She doesn't care that her best friend, a Variant, is considered "the enemy." She doesn't care that Levi, who controls the Source, is the real enemy and might send his Taser boys after her if she makes one wrong move. She certainly doesn't care that her sister, Sarah, disapproves of everything Esther does--especially when Sarah's got a secret of her own.

But when Caleb, a brave and mysterious stranger, arrives in town, Esther begins to question who she can trust. As shady pasts unravel into the present and new romances develop, Caleb and Esther realize that they must team together to fight for their lives and for the freedom of Prin.

About the Author

Susan Kim & Laurence Klavan cowrote the graphic novels City Of Spies and Brain Camp.

Susan is also a five-time Emmy nominee for her work in children's television and a Writers Guild Award winner for best documentary. She wrote the stage adaptation of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, teaches writing at Goddard College, and is a blogger for the Huffington Post. When she was growing up, there was a chain-link fence behind her apartment that led to a small woods. After dinner, all the kids would sneak through to play in a world where no adults intruded. The memory of that has always stayed with her.

Laurence's previous novels include The Cutting Room and The Shooting Script; he won an Edgar Award for the novel Mrs. White, and his short-story collection is forthcoming. He received two Drama Desk nominations for the book and lyrics to Bed and Sofa, a musical produced by New York's Vineyard Theatre. As kids, he and his three brothers used to make epic movies in their backyard, reenacting the Alamo, the signing of the Magna Carta . . . and the end of the world. This last one involved a lot of fighting over food and property, which was, of course, what they did every day in real life.