Ship Breaker

Bacigalupi, P. (2010). Ship breaker. New York: Little, Brown, and Co.

ISBN: 9780316056212 | hardcover | 326p. | $17.99 USD

Cover image courtesy of goodreads.com

Annotation: In a realistic future after global warming has taken its toll, ship breakers scavenge the metal and oil from beached tankers.  Nailer is a young ship breaker who happens upon a particularly interesting "lucky strike".

Book Talk:  Born into a futuristic, dystopian world as a scavenger, Nailer must work each day foraging for copper wire among beached oil tankers in the Gulf Coast region.  It’s dangerous work navigating the depths of these massive tankers, but Nailer must meet his quota if he’s to survive.  Like all ship breakers, he dreams of making a “lucky strike”—finding a pocket of oil or other valuables that he can sell for a profit.  When a hurricane washes ashore a high-tech, fast sailing clipper ship, Nailer feels he’s hit the jackpot.  That is until he discovers some unwanted cargo aboard—a near dead survivor.  Will he take advantage of his lucky strike and strip it bare, or will he sacrifice the riches it could bring to help save the survivor?

My favorite thing about the book:

This is dystopian literature at its finest.  It’s vivid and engrossing language bring to life Nailer’s world, which is so horrifying and realistically portrayed, it seems as if based in reality.

First Sentence:

“Nailer clambered through a service duct, tugging at copper wire and yanking it free.”

Favorite characters:

Nailer and Pima

Awards/Honors:

2010 Finalist National Book Award

2011 Michael L. Printz Award

Locust Award for Best Young Adult Book

YALSA 2011 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults

Learn More:

Don’t miss this video of author Paolo Bacigalupi describing the setting of Ship Breaker.