Jul 9, 2008 Published in 2003, the book the City of Ember is Jeanne DuPrau’s first novel. I read it in two days and thoroughly enjoyed it. I love finding great books to read and this is one of them. I highly recommend it. I couldn’t put the book down. Lights shine in the city of Ember—but at the city limits the light ends, and darkness takes over. Out there in the Unknown Regions, the darkness goes on forever in all directions. Ember—so its people believe—is the only light in the dark world.
And now the lights of the city are beginning to fail.
Is there a way to save the people of Ember? No one knows. But Lina Mayfleet has found a puzzling document, and Doon Harrow has made discoveries down in the Pipeworks. With these clues, they start their search.
The City of Ember is the only light in the dark world. Beyond Ember, the darkness goes on forever in all directions. When the children of the city of Ember finish school, they begin work at 12 years of age. . . .
Lina Mayfleet desperately wants to be a messenger. Messengers spend their days outside, running from one corner of the city to the other. Instead, she draws the dreaded job of Pipeworks laborer, which means she’ll be stuck in tunnels deep underground.
Doon Harrow draws messenger—and asks to trade with Lina! Doon wants to be underground. That’s where the generator is, and Doon has ideas about how to fix it. For as long as anyone can remember, the great lights of Ember have kept the endless darkness that surrounds the city at bay. But now the lights are starting to flicker.
When Lina finds fragments of an ancient parchment, she and Doon put the pieces together to discover a message that seems to be directions out of the city.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeanne DuPrau has been a teacher, an editor, and a technical writer. The City of Ember is her first novel. She is currently working on the sequel at her home in Menlo Park, California, where she keeps a big garden and a small dog.
“What could be more interesting than thinking of mysterious happenings, finding the answers to intriguing questions, and making up new worlds?”–Jeanne DuPrau
