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Nothing Janne Teller, trans. from the Danish Martin Aitken

On the first day of Year 7, Pierre Anthon stands up and announces "Nothing matters...I've known that for a long time. So nothing's worth doing. I just realized that." He then walks out and spends the rest of his days hanging out in the plum tree outside the commune he lives on.

His classmates have been raised to believe that they matter, that they were going to amount to something, to be someone. They have to walk by Pierre Anthon's plum tree to get to and from school. When they pass, he pelts them with plums and his ideas on life "It's all a waste of time... Everything begins only to end. The moment you were born you began to die. That's how it is with everything. The Earth is four billion, six hundred million years old, and you're going to reach one hundred at the most! It's not even worth the bother."

His plums and words find sore spots, and they set out to prove him wrong. The best way the class can think of to prove life has meaning is to make a heap of the things they find meaningful in their lives. Some are objects (sandals you waited for all summer) some are symbols (the flag, the church's crucifix). But it's quickly apparent that the students don't want to part with things that really mean the most to them, so the other students decide. Once you're forced to give up what's most meaningful, you pick the next student and what they have to give up.

It gets dark quickly as the students start choosing objects in revenge for what they were forced to lose.

And then... when the heap is finished. Will it still be enough to convince Pierre Anthon that he's wrong?

I love the language in this book.

"Nothing matters," he announced. "I've known that for a long time. So nothing's worth doing. I just realized that." Calm and collected, he bent down and put everything he had just taken out back into his bag. he nodded good-bye with a disinterested look and left the classroom without closing the door behind him.

The door smiled. It was the first time I'd seen it do that. Pierre Anthon left the door ajar like a grinning abyss that would swallow me up into the outside with im if only I let myself go. Smiling at whom? At me, at us. I looked around the class. The uncomfortable silence told me that others had felt it too.

We were supposed to amount to something.

Something was the same as someone, and even if nobody ever said so out loud, it was hardly left unspoken, either. It was just in the air, or in the time, or in the fence surrounding the school, or in our pillows, or in the soft toys that after having served us so loyally had now been unjustly discarded and left to gather dust in attics or basements. I hadn't known. Pierre Anthon's smiling door told me. I still didn't know with my mind, but all the same I knew.

All of a sudden I was scared. Scared of Pierre Anthon.

Scared, more scared, most scared. (page 5-6)

Agnes is our narrarator, but she's a bit anonymous-- she functions more as an every student. I do, however, love her habit of repeating important word

By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: January 10, 2011

The American Library Association (ALA) announced the winner of the Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults:

“Ship Breaker,” written by Paolo Bacigalupi, is the 2011 Printz Award winner. The book is published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Four Printz Honor Books also were named:

“Stolen,” by Lucy Christopher and published by Chicken House, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.; “Please Ignore Vera Dietz,” by A.S. King and published by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc.; “Revolver,” by Marcus Sedgwick and published by Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of the Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group; and “Nothing,” by Janne Teller and published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division.

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By: Trisha, Gayle, and Jolene, on 9/28/2010
Blog: The YA YA YAs (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Reviews, Fiction, nothing, Found in Translation, janne teller, Add a tag

I wrote the following for Guys Lit Wire this morning and hadn’t planned to cross-post it here since the first two paragraphs are nearly identical to what I wrote about Nothing a couple of months ago during the 48 Hour Book Challenge. But the last two paragraphs are brand new, so why not?

When Pierre Anthon realized that nothing matters, he announced his revelation to his classmates and left the room. His classmates, all thirteen- or fourteen-years-old, believe he is wrong. They decide to collect things with meaning to prove to Pierre Anthon that things matter and there is meaning to life. But what started as a collection of favorite toys and mementos soon escalates into something darker, as the classmates begin to force one another into giving up more than material possessions.

Agnes is one of the students. She participates in the collection of meaningful things and watches as things start to go wrong. She tries, early on, to convince her classmates they’re going too far. But their quest has taken on a momentum of its own and Agnes is compelled to remain a part of it. The students are all in it together. As a group, they decided not to tell adults about Pierre Anthon, and as a group, they refuse to let any of their number back out.

Written in a simple style that is brutal in its intensity, Janne Teller’s Nothing (translated from Danish by Martin Aitken) is a harrowing novel. If the combination of Translated from a Scandinavian Language + Philosophy makes you think Sophie’s World, stop right there. Nothing has been compared to Lord of the Flies, and rightly so. In a way, though, I think it’s more disturbing than Lord of the Flies, because the events don’t take place on an island without any adults. Agnes and her classmates live with their parents in an ordinary Danish town and continue going to school, trying to keep their plans secret. To use a cliché, reading this novel is like watching a train wreck. I could not look away, no matter how disturbing the situation. Even knowing things would get worse, I kept on reading, absolutely compelled to finish the book.

Obviously, Nothing is not a book for everyone, and despite the age of the characters, probably not best appreciated by most thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds. But for mature readers looking for a disturbing, thought-provoking, challenging (in terms of content, not literary style) read, this is the book for you. I think it’s deserving of a Printz Award (hope I’m not jinxing it), and, to namedrop shamelessly, John Green agrees.

Filed under: Fiction, Found in Translation, Reviews 1 Comments on Nothing by Janne Teller (Guys Lit Wire version), last added: 9/29/2010

What I said about Borderline being a great choice for this challenge? Does not apply to Nothing by Janne Teller, translated from Danish by Martin Aitken. I need to decompress after reading it and writing this review. I can’t just pick up another book and immediately start reading, which, after all, is what you want to do in a reading challenge.

Nothing is an astounding book, undoubtedly among the best books I’ll read this year. I’m going to have a hard time forgetting about it, it’s so haunting and disturbing and frightening. This book deserves all the starred reviews it’s received here upon its US publication and, I have no doubt, the children’s book prizes it’s already won in Europe.

Pierre Anthon realized that nothing matters. His classmates, all thirteen or fourteen-years-old, believe he is wrong. They collect things with meaning to prove to Pierre Anthon that things matter and there is meaning to life. But what started as a collection of favorite toys and mementos soon escalates into something darker, as the classmates begin to force one another into giving up more than material possessions.

Agnes is one of the students. She watches as things start to go wrong, participates in the collection of meaningful things. She tries, early on, to convince her classmates they’re going too far. But their quest has taken on a momentum of its own and Agnes is compelled to remain a part of it. They’re all in it together. As a group, they decided not to tell adults about Pierre Anthon, and as a group, they refuse to let any of their number back out.

For people looking for a thought-provoking, challenging (in terms of content, not style) read, put Nothing on the top of your list.

Reading Time: 54 minutes

Blog/Twitter Time: 28 minutes

Total Reading Time: 2 hours 42 minutes

And now I need some light reading. Maybe Yakitate!! Japan vol. 22? Or maybe I’ll just go to sleep, because we had such a hectic day at work.