The selection

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The selection (original title: Matched ) is a youth novel by the American author Ally Condie from 2010 (German 2011). It is the first volume of a trilogy, the other parts of which were published on January 20, 2012, Die Flucht and The Arrival on January 8, 2013 in Germany.

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Cassia is paired with her longtime best friend Xander on her seventeenth birthday. She is overjoyed that the system chose this way. Even if she thinks she already knows everything about him, she looks at the microchip with information about him at home. But the picture she sees is not of Xander, but of Ky. He's also one of her friends and, what she didn't know before, an aberration . As such, his data should not actually have been in the mating pool. A functionary explains to Cassia that a one-off mistake has occurred, she needn't worry, and she is still paired with Xander. But Cassia has to think about Ky again and again in the near future.

During her summer activity, hiking, she meets him again and the two of them spend a lot of time together, as they are usually the first to arrive at their destination. This is how they get to know each other better, he told her about his childhood in the Outer Provinces and how his parents were killed after his father committed an offense. He also teaches her to write, a skill that almost no one has anymore. In return, Cassia tells him about the two poems that her grandfather had given her before his death. She has the lines in her head because she had to destroy the paper. Only a hundred poems were kept at the beginning of the society. They quickly fall in love and Cassia is warned by her functionary that she has actually been paired with Xander and a relationship to an aberration or even an anomaly is strictly forbidden.

However, the two continue to meet. A short time later, Ky is picked up and taken away early in the morning by officials and police officers. When his adoptive mother and aunt started screaming loudly, the other residents woke up too. Cassia desperately tries to get to Ky. In the last few seconds she can tell him that she will be looking for him. He and his adoptive parents are then taken away. Everyone who heard what happened had to swallow a red pill. It makes you forget what happened in the last 12 hours. Cassia doesn't take the pill and it doesn't work on Xander, so they both can remember everything that has happened recently. The next day, Cassia's family received word that they were being relocated. Even if her parents do not remember what happened, they enable Cassia to work in an area after the move, where Ky could possibly be.

The world

The story takes place in a society in the future where disease, poverty and the like no longer exist. The ideal spouse for yourself is assigned by the system in the year of your 17th birthday. This person will be married at the age of 21 and will be with her all his life. Children may be born up to the age of 31 of their parents. You can decide to stay single beforehand, but this decision is irreversible. All other things such as clothing, place of residence and food are assigned to the people. The optimal value for the individual is calculated everywhere. Cultural goods are forbidden in society. Only 100 works of each genre were selected by a commission: 100 paintings, 100 songs, 100 poems, etc. In addition, every person is allowed to own an “ artifact ” that was mostly passed on from previous generations of the family. However, the government later decides to ban the artifacts as they would increase inequality between people.

Everyone always has to carry three tablets with them. A green one that is used to calm down; a blue one, which is said to contain nutrients necessary for survival for a few days so that the wearer can survive should he have access to water (later it turns out that the blue tablet is in fact paralyzed and leads to death); as well as a red pill that makes people forget about the last 12 hours (although some people in society are immune to the effects). The tablets for children are first kept by their parents and then handed over to the child piece by piece (the green tablet first, the red tablet last on their 16th birthday).

On their 80th birthday, all people in society die in the presence of their families. This is done by a special poison that is mixed into the last meal, which is also one of the reasons why society forbids people to share food with one another.

Any person who violates the rules of society is classified first as aberrations, and then as anomalies, and violates the latter. Your children and grandchildren are usually classified at least as aberrations. These are allowed to work normally and often live undetected among other people, but are not allowed to take part in the mating and get worse and harder jobs. In addition, they are not granted other civil rights either, for example, they are not allowed to carry their tablets themselves and are also not allowed to have any artifacts.

reception

The Walt Disney Company acquired the film rights and granted the translation rights to 30 countries. In February 2011, the novel reached number 9 on the New York Times Best Sellers List Children's Chapter Books . In Austria, The Selection 2011 was awarded the Youth Book Prize of the Young Readers Jury .

Awards

  • 2011: Youth book award of the jury of young readers (age group 15/16 years)

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ally Condie's 'Matched' Makes Auspicious Debut . www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
  2. ↑ Best Sellers - The New York Times . www.nytimes.com. Retrieved February 21, 2011.
  3. ↑ http://www.juryderjungenleser.at/?PID=10,0,0&LNG=de