The City of Ember

I read the City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau. One of the best I’ve read. This is the first in a series of four books.

It’s about a boy, Doon Harrow, and a girl, Lina Mayfleet, living in a city called Ember. The city is surrounded by darkness. The bold few who venture into this darkness away from the city never return or they come back as lunatics.

The town is crumbling. The generator which powers the whole town goes out of action frequently. Blackouts are regular and they are getting longer everyday. The city stores supply food, clothing and everything to the citizens. The stocks are dwindling. Lina’s grandmother recalls the taste of canned pineapple she ate when she was young. And it is no more. The colour pencils are sold in the black market for high prices.

The story begins on the Assignment day. At the end of schooling students are assigned a job by drawing a slip from a bag offered by the mayor of the town. Mayor, who is like any other leader or politician in life, corrupt and dishonest, appoints a committee to find a solution to this worsening situation while the solution has been offered to them in ‘a box’ a long time ago. Doon wants to be an electrician. He wants to fix the generator and save the city. Lina wants to be a messenger, one who runs around the city delivering messages.

Doon and Lina have to save the people and learn the truth about the city despite the threats and dangers from the mayor and the city guards who are trying to cover up their crimes and corruption from the public.

There is a movie based on the book. While the book narrates the story from the perspective of what Doon or Lina knows about the city and gradually develops from that until we learn the truth at the very end, the movie gives out the whole story in the first few seconds. But the city looked just like how I imagined it would be. And it had nice theme music, the kind which runs in your head again and again ad infinitum.