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Cover of Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Ship Breaker

  • 336 pages · about 6 hours
  • First published 2010
  • 11 editions

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1 About this book

In America's Gulf Coast region, 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...

Good for readers who want: science fiction and dystopian fiction.

  • Science fiction
  • Dystopian fiction
  • Fantasy
  • Environment
  • Young adult nonfiction
  • Conduct of life
  • Ocean
  • Oil

2 About Paolo Bacigalupi

Born 1972

Paolo Tadini Bacigalupi (born August 6, 1972) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He has won the Hugo, Nebula, John W. Campbell Memorial, Compton Crook, Theodore Sturgeon, and Michael L. Printz awards, and has been nominated for the National Book Award. His fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov's Science Fiction, and the environmental journal High Country News.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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