Anthem

The word "I" has been abolished. In this future world, people are assigned numbers rather than names, and every aspect of life is subordinated to the collective "we." A young man called Equality 7-2521 has committed the ultimate crime: he thinks for himself. What begins as forbidden curiosity becomes an act of rebellion. In the ruins of an ancient house, Equality discovers something that will unravel everything his society has taught him about the sin of selfhood. Rand's slim, incendiary novella strips civilization down to its bones and asks a question most dystopian fiction avoids: what actually remains when the individual is erased? Equality's awakening is both a personal odyssey and a philosophical grenade. The ending offers no easy comfort, only a choice between the safety of conformity and the terrifying, exhilarating burden of freedom. It is a book that has provoked readers for nearly a century, and one that still demands you decide where you truly stand.