Introduction
Just imagine if we could start over and create perfect society. How would we want things done? What would you keep or change? What would you have to give up?
In Jonas' perfect world, everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. But when Jonas learns the truth, there is no turning back. In a Utopian community where there
are no choices—where everyone has his or her place in the world assigned according to gifts and interests--the time has come for 12-year-old Jonas to become the new Receiver of Memory. He will be the one to bear the collective memories of a society that lives only in the present, where "Sameness " is the rule. But Jonas soon recognizes the losses and discovers the lie that supports his community. He decides he will change his world--but he cannot predict how that change will come about, or what that change will mean for himself and the "newchild" Gabriel, whom he has resolved to protect.
In Jonas' perfect world, everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. But when Jonas learns the truth, there is no turning back. In a Utopian community where there
are no choices—where everyone has his or her place in the world assigned according to gifts and interests--the time has come for 12-year-old Jonas to become the new Receiver of Memory. He will be the one to bear the collective memories of a society that lives only in the present, where "Sameness " is the rule. But Jonas soon recognizes the losses and discovers the lie that supports his community. He decides he will change his world--but he cannot predict how that change will come about, or what that change will mean for himself and the "newchild" Gabriel, whom he has resolved to protect.