The Hunger Games

What was once the United States is now a nation called Panem: a lavish Capitol exercises strict control over the twelve districts that surround it and are isolated from one another. Each district is forced to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen every year to take part in the Hunger Games, which are broadcast live on television. It is a fight to the death, in which only one survivor can remain. Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen-year-old girl, volunteers to take her sister's place in the games; but for her, who has already seen death up close, the fight for survival is second nature.