Series: National Book Award Winner for Young People's Literature, Newbery Honor Book, Printz Honor BookMatteo Alacr_n was not born; he was harvested.His DNA came from El Patr_n, lord of a country called Opium--a strip of poppy fields lying between the United States and what was once called Mexico. Matt's first cell split and divided inside a petri dish. Then he was placed in the womb of a cow, where he continued the miraculous journey from embryo to fetus to baby. He is a boy now, but most consider him a monster--except for El Patr_n. El Patr_n loves Matt as he loves himself, because Matt is himself.As Matt struggles to understand his existence, he is threatened by a sinister cast of characters, including El Patr_n's power-hungry family, and he is surrounded by a dangerous army of bodyguards. Escape is the only chance Matt has to survive. But escape from the Alacr_n Estate is no guarantee of freedom, because Matt is marked by his difference in ways he doesn't even suspect.

 

There are 400 pages in this book. This book was published 2004 by Simon & Schuster .

Nancy Farmer has written three Newbery Honor books: The Ear, the Eye and the Arm; A Girl Named Disaster; and The House of the Scorpion, which also won the National Book Award and the Printz Honor. Other books include The Lord of Opium, The Sea of Trolls, The Land of the Silver Apples, The Islands of the Blessed, Do You Know Me, The Warm Place, and three picture books for young children. She grew up on the Arizona-Mexico border and now lives with her family in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona.