The Mark by Edyth Bulbring

    The Mark is a dystopian novel by South African author Edyth Bulbring, published in 2014. It won the English Academy's 2016 Percy FitzPatrick Prize for Youth Literature. The novel is set in a harsh future world where people's lives are controlled by a mark on their spine that determines their work and their mate. The protagonist, Juliet Seven, also known as Ettie, decides to challenge her destiny and fulfil a prophecy that was spoken of before she even existed.

    Plot summary

    The novel is set in the year 2145, after a global catastrophe called the Conflagration that destroyed most of the civilization and left the world in a state of perpetual drought and heat. The survivors live in a rigid society ruled by a heartless elite called the Privileged, who have access to water, food, and technology. The rest of the population are divided into two classes: the Drudges, who do manual labor and have no rights, and the Invalids, who are sick, disabled, or elderly and are destined to die in the Pit, a mass grave.




The Mark By Edyth Bulbring