A book about Nothing by Janne Teller

Nothing is a morbid, philosophical mind-bender by Janne Teller. Denmark is the setting for Teller's story, and the name she chose for the town is thought-provoking itself. Taering is a Danish word for "corrode, consume and eat through". The young teens in the town assimilate to their town's namesake.

Pierre Anton is a nihilist who walks away from his schooling to while away the hours in a plum tree. He accosts his former classmates on their way to school with his doctrine that life has no meaning. "Nothing matters, so nothing is worth doing." he proclaims. This infuriates his former classmates, who first try to pelt him with stones to change his perspective. When this fails, they vow to collectively build a "heap of meaning".

They found an abandoned sawmill where they decided to create their heap. At first, they brought favorite items like Dungeons and Dragons books, earrings, and sandals. Resistance began to develop as more meaningful items were suggested for the heap. Suggestions soon became vengeful demands. Their demands for each other became more and more insidious, until morbidity began piling on the heap: a child's exhumed coffin, a sacred prayer rug, the town church's large crucifix, and other horrifying, life-altering sacrifices.

By stripping themselves of their most valuable or sacred items, the teens sank to demoralizing behaviors. Their trials to create a heap of meaning irrevocably changed the teens' personalities. Sophie was a girl who became eerily calm in the process of brutalizing, macabre actions. "...she was rubbing off on the rest of us. What was to happen was a necessary sacrifice in our struggle for the meaning." Everyone had to participate in losing something precious to them for all to experience the loss. Their ultimate loss occured with Pierre Anton's reaction to their sacrifices.

Nothing is a read-alike for Lord of the Flies lovers. Teller's style of repeating words and using reverse superlatives throughout the book help the reader pause to experience the emotions of the characters: "little bit, tiny, little, smaller, nothing." Although the content is far too morbid and grotesque for the middle school ages, I would love to see a teacher take on the challenge of using this with an advanced high school literature course. Existentialism is a difficult concept to teach, but this novel paints a vivid picture of the experience.