Debut Showcase: Truancy by Isamu Fukui

TRUANCY (Amazon USA, UK, Canada)
by Isamu Fukui
Tor
Hardcover
Excerpt

Blurb:

In an alternate world, in a nameless totalitarian city, the autocratic Mayor rules the school system with an iron fist, with the help of his Educators. Fighting against the Mayor and his repressive Educators is a group of former students called the Truancy, whose goal is to take down the system by any means possible—at any cost.

Against this backdrop, fifteen-year-old Tack is just trying to survive. His days are filled with sadistic teachers, unrelenting schoolwork, and indifferent parents. Things start to look up when he meets Umasi, a mysterious boy who runs a lemonade stand in an uninhabited district.

Then someone close to Tack gets killed in the crossfire between the Educators and the Truants, and Tack swears vengeance. To achieve his purpose, he abandons his old life and joins the Truancy. There, he confronts Zyid, an enigmatic leader with his own plans for Tack. But Tack soon finds himself torn between his desire for vengeance and his growing sympathy for the Truants...

Wow; the author wrote this when he was fifteen! Check out some further blurbage from Tor:

Isamu Fukui wrote Truancy during the summer of his fifteenth year. The author’s purpose is not just to entertain, but to make a statement about the futility of the endless cycle of violence in the world as well as the state of the educational system. And, as he put it, “I need to be in school myself if I want to write about it.”

All the world loves a wunderkind (or do they?) so it's no surprise that this novel has garnered some attention already, as you can see at the main page of the author's site. I can imagine that teenagers love reading books by actual teenagers. My own high school years were highly positive, so I'm not sure I would be able to identify with this novel.