Son was published by Houghton Mifflin in 2012, the final volume of The Giver Quartet and the book that connects all three previous novels into a single story. It follows Claire, a young woman who was a Birthmother in Jonas’s original Community — one of those assigned to produce children who are then given to other families. Her baby (who is revealed to be Gabe, the infant Jonas saved at the end of The Giver) was designated for “release,” and Claire’s suppressed maternal love drives her on a journey across all the worlds of the Quartet.
The novel is structured in three parts: “Before” (Claire’s life in the Community, her pregnancy, her growing attachment to the baby that the system forbids), “Between” (her escape, her years in a coastal village climbing a cliff to reach the world beyond, her Faustian bargain for the strength to continue), and “Beyond” (her search for her now-grown son in the Village from Messenger). The structure spans decades and connects all the Quartet’s communities geographically and temporally.
The villain is not a society but the Trademaster — the embodiment of the exchange system from Messenger, who deals in human qualities and collects souls. Claire’s bargain with him (her youth for the strength to find her son) sets up the novel’s climax: whether love can defeat an entity that deals in isolation and despair.
Collecting Son
First edition (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 2012): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $10–$20
- Signed first edition: $20–$50
- Complete Giver Quartet set (all firsts): $150–$400