Description: 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 smalla favorite pair of shoes, a fishing polebut become more and more dreadful as the pile of meaning grows. Quietly and without fanfare, the students' adventure develops into one that rivalsLord of the Fliesfor horror. The matter-of-fact, ruthlessly logical amorality of these teens is chilling. Gorgeously lyrical, as abetted by Aitken's translation, and dreadfully bleak. (Fiction, 13 & up)Kirkus ReviewsSTARRED REVIEW

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