The Last Book in the Universe by Rodman Philbrick

The Eden project Cornwall

This is a book about books, stories, memories, and remembering. It is set in a gloomy future where the world has been destroyed by a great earthquake called the Big Shake. It ruined the whole atmosphere poisonous and there is no modern technology except probing, which is like VR but inside your brain. However, the side effect of probing is that you forget everything, it erases your long-term memory. This made learning and advancing imposible. Spaz cannot do brain probing because of his epilepsy, but this actially saves his life and the life of his sister.

The only real treasure is inside your head, he says, tapping the side of his skull. Memories are better than diamonds, and nobody can steal them from you.

The plot is driven by the quest of Spaz to find and save his dying sister who has leucemia and nobody in Spaz's world remembers the cure. He is joined by an old man called Ryter (a writer) who wants to have his last adventure and finish his book (the last existing book).

Thinking about the future may be great for prooves, I tell him. But normals don't even have a past, let alone a future.

Eden

The whole world is not a big dirty mess afterall. There is a part of the Earth populated by genetically improved humans that managed to clean the atmosphere and retain the knowledge and technology. However, this part is reserved for the lucky few prooves and the normals are not aloud in.

It has the advantage of simplicity, he says, rubbing his withered hands together, and the best ideas begin with simplicity.

The last book gets destroyed but Spaz is comitted to write one about his life.

This is a fast paced adventure full of significant life lessons about acceptance and courage. A must read.