Anna’s World

Anna’s World explores contemporary life and the penetrating energy of youth as Blais looks at teenagers by creating Anna, an introspective, alienated teenager without hope. Anna has experienced what life today has to offer and rejected its premise. There is really no point in going on. We are all going to die, if we are not already dead, is Anna’s philosophy.

Anna and her friend Michelle have experimented with drugs and sex, they have taken the obligatory dance or music lessons in an attempt, perhaps, to find some meaning in their existence, but they remain essentially alone and empty. They are not bored; they are without hope, without hope of finding peace or even living long enough to begin the search.

Anna’s indifference to life is chilling, often terrifying, primarily because Blais convinces us that this is not just reality for Anna, but represents life for many young people here and now. Blais never lets us escape from this fact, nor the fear. Anna’s World opens with it: “It was neither warm nor cold in Anna’s heart, neither cool nor blazing, it was empty.”

A timeless novel that evokes a powerful, heartfelt response from readers as they connect to “life as it is lived” for many young people.