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Description

Set in a dark future America devastated by the forces of climate change, this thrilling bestseller and National Book Finalist is a gritty, high-stakes adventure of a teenage boy faced with conflicting loyalties.

In America's flooded Gulf Coast region, oil is scarce, but loyalty is scarcer. Grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts by crews of young people. Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota–and hopefully live to see another day. But when, by luck or by chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important decision of his life: Strip the ship for all it's worth or rescue its lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life….

In this powerful novel, Hugo and Nebula Award winning author Paolo Bacigalupi delivers a fast-paced adventure set in the vivid and raw, uncertain future of his companion novels The Drowned Cities and Tool of War.

"Suzanne Collins may have put dystopian literature on the YA map with The Hunger Games…but Bacigalupi is one of the genre's masters, employing inventively terrifying details in equally imaginative story lines." —Los Angeles Times

A New York Times Bestseller
A Michael L. Printz Award Winner
A National Book Award Finalist
A VOYA 2010 Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers Book
A Rolling Stone 40 Best YA Novels Book


Don’t miss the other books in the series:
The Drowned Cities
Tool of War

About the Author

NOVL - Headshot photo of Paolo Bacigalupi

Paolo Bacigalupi is the author of the highly acclaimed The Drowned CitiesTool of War, and Ship Breaker, a New York Times bestseller, Michael L. Printz Award winner, and National Book Award finalist. He is also the author of the Edgar Awards nominee The Doubt Factory; a novel for younger readers, Zombie Baseball Beatdown; and two bestselling adult novels for adults, The Water Knife and The Windup Girl. His first work of collected short fiction was Pump Six and Other Stories. The winner of the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Compton Crook, John W. Campbell Memorial, and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Awards, he lives in western Colorado with his wife and son. The author invites you to visit his website at windupstories.com.

From NOVL Nation

“They were all such vastly different characters, with different motives and intentions and that made the story so much more interesting. Because of the different character’s point of views and backgrounds we got even more knowledge about the world these characters live in, and that was really fascinating to read. Tool of War definitely kept me on the edge of my seat, and constantly had me wondering what was next.”
—Emmi, Emmi Rose Reads

“The world is nasty, gritty, and bloody—a true dystopian book! There are cruel people and corporations wanting to seize you, and there is a bioengineered war beast. The problems that occur today also appear in the book, which makes the story more terrifying.”
—Karissa, Read Coffee and Teen

The author creates a world that is so realistic and vivid. The setting is in the future with events you feel like could happen. The characters are easy to relate to with lifelike struggles, drama, and hardships.”
—Patti, Lovely Loveday

#ShipBreaker

Read the Series

Meet The Author: Paolo Bacigalupi

Paolo Bacigalupi is the author of the highly acclaimed The Drowned Cities, Tool of War,and Ship Breaker, a New York Times bestseller, Michael L. Printz Award winner, and National Book Award finalist. He is also the author of the Edgar Awards nominee The Doubt Factory; a novel for younger readers, Zombie Baseball Beatdown; and two bestselling adult novels for adults, The Water Knife and The Windup Girl. His first work of collected short fiction was Pump Six and Other Stories. He co-wrote The Tangled Lands with Tobias S. Buckell. The winner of the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Compton Crook, John W. Campbell Memorial, and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Awards, he lives in western Colorado with his wife and son. The author invites you to visit his website at windupstories.com.

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