Read by Richard Powers

In the year 2036, the world's best boarding school is the Stansbury School. The students, better known as specimens, are screened at a young age and then given twelve years of the finest education-and developmental drug regimen-available. Graduates go on to dominate in all the top colleges, Forbes 500 companies, and government positions. But when several alumni are murdered, school officials decide to keep the police in the dark. They discreetly ask the school's valedictorian to solve the mystery, but he discovers that the most obvious culprit, the school's chemically-imbalanced delinquent-and his own nemesis-is being framed. Together, the two unlikely allies uncover a massive conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of the Stansbury administration and the United States government. Title. Dedication. Quotes. Prologue..Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Epilogue "Kalstein's writing mirrors the world he creats: bold, textured, rife with dark secrets. Watching the ambitious boy genius and the angst-ridden thug piecing together the clues-about a conspiracy, about themselves-makes Prodigy a wonderful coming-of-age story hidden inside a riveting mystery." "Kalstein's action-packed comment on the price of 'progress,' the absurdity of hypercompetitive education, and the myth of meritocracy hurtles to a satisfying…conclusion." "Narrator Paul Michael Garcia is at his best giving gravity and emotion to the voices of the valedictorian, the punk, the misfit, and the brainy beauty, who band together to solve the murders. Kalstein weaves biting dystopian discourse with teen romance to create likable characters and a surprising, moving epilogue." "Engrossing…The book is so well imagined that one cares about the school's fate from the start. And the characters are vivid as well, befitting what is, beneath its fast-paced surface, a thoughtful novel about boarding-school life."

Mode of access: World Wide Web