Looking for Alaska

Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words—and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet François Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young. Clever, funny, messed-up, and dead-sexy, Alaska will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.

Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another. A stunning debut, it marks John Green’s arrival as an important new voice in contemporary fiction.

The main character, sixteen-year-old Miles Halter, is interested in the last sayings of famous people. Following the last words of François Rabelais, he leaves his boring life with his parents and goes to study at the new school Culver Creek in search of the great “Perhaps.” Here he finds his first friends and falls in love with a girl named Alaska Young—who turns his life upside down and then disappears from it. A terrible tragedy makes Miles think seriously about the questions of life and death. His life is now forever divided into before and after.

In America, a scandal broke out around the book: while teenagers reread it again and again, parents criticized the author for explicit scenes, and schools included the novel in their curriculum. The controversy reached such a pitch that John Green had to post a video blog statement. He pointed out that the book was never positioned as a children’s book, and that those who oppose it focus only on the sexual aspect of the plot, overlooking everything else, including old-fashioned values and religion. Since its release in 2005, the novel has won 11 awards. In 2012, it ranked ninth in the list of 100 best books for teenagers based on a poll by the American news nonprofit National Public Radio.