Neal Shusterman (About | Neal Shusterman) is an American writer of young adult fiction. He won the 2015 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for his book Challenger Deep.
To sample Shusterman’s large body of work try Unwind (2007). The summary is as follows: The story takes place in a future version of the United States. After the Second Civil War (‘The Heartland War’) was fought over abortion, a compromise was reached. ‘The Bill of Life’, a set of constitutional amendments allowing parents to sign an order for their children between the ages of 13 and 18 to be ‘unwound’ — often taken to ‘harvest camps’. The child’s body is dismembered and used for surgical and cosmetic transplants, essentially making conventional surgery redundant. The reasoning is that since 99.44% of the child’s body is used, ‘Unwinds’ do not technically die because their individual body parts live on.
The story revolves around three teenagers who have been scheduled to be unwound: Connor Lassiter, Risa Ward, and Levi ‘Lev’ Jedediah Calder.
Check if this dystopian novel is in stock at your local library by consulting the online catalogue here Home | South Lanarkshire Libraries (sllclibrary.co.uk)
335 pages in Turtleback Books
First published 2007
ISBN 978-0606107006
Neal Shusterman