Le passeur

Lois Lowry's Le passeur ("The Giver") was a fascinating book set in a strange, almost utopian community where each individual receives their lifelong work assignment at the age of 12. When the novel's main character, Jonas, turns 12, he suffers the shame of being passed over for a work assignment--what he doesn't know however, is that he has been chosen to be the next recipient of the community's collected historical memory (transmitted to him by an elderly man known as the Giver). The normal citizens of the community don't know about colors, music, pain, snow, or love, along with many other things--such knowledge would disturb them and disrupt the finely-regulated life of the community; however, occasionally difficult decisions have to be made where these things would come into play, so the Giver alone holds these secrets and dispenses wisdom to community leaders from time to time. The novel has a great aura of mystery and the uncanny, especially because the community isn't obviously evil--there are no thought police, obviously evil rules, or exploitation--just a strange and unnerving lack of most of the things that we think of when we think about what human lives are like. I'm probably not explaining it well, but this is one of those books I really recommend highly.