M.T. Anderson’s other books (Thirsty, Burger Wuss, Feed) have all been books for young adults; it makes sense that his newest title is a teen book too. But that Octavian Nothing is different is apparent at first glance. Octavian is a young boy living in Boston on the eve of the Revolutionary War. Raised in isolation by a strange group of philosophers and scientists, Octavian doesn’t understand his place or purpose in the world—until one day when he does, and he is horrified. M.T. Anderson gives us a world and a set of characters that don’t know the outcome of the Colonies’ war with England, and that have some very difficult choices to make. Octavian Nothing forces us to ask a new set of questions about what we thought we knew—questions about history, hypocrisy, and personal choice--that are worth asking whether we took American History last year or last decade. The sequel, Volume II: Kingdom on the Waves, was published in 2008.

posted May 18, 2009 at 1:27PM

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