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The award-winning, genre-defining debut from John Green, the #1 international bestselling author of Turtles All the Way Down and The Fault in Our Stars

Millions of copies sold!

★ Michael L. Printz Award Winner
★ Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
★ NPR's 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels
★ TIME Magazine's 100 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time
 New York Times Bestseller
 USA Today Bestseller

Before. Miles “Pudge” Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhaps” even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . .

After. Nothing is ever the same.


Editorial Reviews

Review

★ Michael L. Printz Award Winner
★ Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
★ NPR's 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels
★ TIME Magazine's 100 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time
★ An ALA Best Book for Young Adults Top 10
★ An ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Readers
★ A Booklist Best Book of the Year
★ A Kirkus Best Book of the Year
★ A SLJ Best Book of the Year
★ A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age

“What sets this novel apart is the brilliant, insightful, suffering but enduring voice of Miles Halter.” –Chicago Tribune

Funny, sad, inspiring, and always compelling.” –Bookpage

Stunning conclusion . . . one worthy of a book this good.” -–Philadelphia Inquirer

The spirit of Holden Caulfield lives on.” –Kliatt

★ “What sings and soars in this gorgeously told tale is Green’s mastery of language and the sweet, rough edges of Pudge’s voice. Girls will cry and boys will find love, lust, loss and longing in Alaska’s vanilla-and-cigarettes scent.” –Kirkus, starred review

★ “Miles’s narration is alive with sweet, self-deprecating humor, and his obvious struggle to tell the story truthfully adds to his believability. Like Phineas in John Knowles’s A Separate Peace, Green draws Alaska so lovingly, in self-loathing darkness as well as energetic light.” –SLJ, starred review

★ “Miles is a witty narrator who manages to be credible as the overlooked kid, but he's also an articulate spokesperson for the legions of teen searching for life meaning (his taste for famous last words is a believable and entertaining quirk), and the Colonel's smarts, clannish loyalties, and relentlessly methodological approach to problems make him a true original....There's a certain recursive fitness here, since this is exactly the kind of book that makes kids like Miles certain that boarding school will bring them their destiny, but perceptive readers may also realize that their own lives await the discovery of meaning even as they vicariously experience Miles' quest.” –BCCB, starred review

John Green has written a powerful novel—one that plunges headlong into the labyrinth of life, love, and the mysteries of being human. This is a book that will touch your life, so don’t read it sitting down. Stand up, and take a step into the Great Perhaps.”
–K.L. Going, author of Fat Kid Rules the World, a Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book


Product details

  • Paperback: 221 pages
  • Publisher: Speak; Reprint edition (December 28, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0142402516
  • ISBN-13: 978-0142402511
  • Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.7 x 8.2 inches


Book
Language English
Author John Green