Author Lois Lowry connects the pieces

In 1993, Lois Lowry published "The Giver," a young adult novel about a dystopian culture in which conformity is the standard and Sameness is a social goal. By then, Lowry was already a well-known writer for young readers: Her first book, "A Summer to Die," came out in 1977, and her novel "Number the Stars," which takes place during the Holocaust, won a 1990 Newbery Medal. Still, with its cautionary sensibility, its insistence on thinking for oneself, "The Giver" became a literary lightning rod. Winner of a 1994 Newbery, the novel has been equally assigned and challenged and is the defining book of Lowry's career.

By David L. Ulin

August 26, 2012