photo from flickr
Extending the topic of the Second World War, I also read a very interesting book about this topic. It’s called The Diary of Pelly D, from L.J.Adlington. The story takes place in the future, on a planet which name is Home from Home. The colons coming from the Earth founded five city, and decided to recommence a new life, wanting to abandon all the things that they disliked on the Earth: war, racism,… Pelly D. is a young beautiful spoilt and quite arrogant girl who lives in Number V, the fifth city. Her parents are rich and she has everything she wants. She also has her own court of admirers, and she is perfectly happy. She writes her diary on a notebook Moma Peg, a strange woman, gave her. But in Number I, an important clan called the Atsumisi Inheritance Clan, begins to be authoritarian. They pretend that they are three kinds of persons: the Atsumisi, the Mazzini and the Galrezi. The Atsumisi have a gene, the Mazzini too but it’s not active, and the Mazzini don’t have the gene in question. A severe drought affects Number I, and the overproud Atsumisi ask for workers for the irrigation project. Many people are conscripted, and must go to Number I. The Atsumisi make obligatory a genetic marking: everybody must have his DNA tested and receive an indelible stamp on the hand. Red for the Atsumisi, blue for the Mazzini and green for the Galrezi. Pelly D. doesn’t realize what is going on, and pretend to believe that everything is OK. But she discovers she is a Galrezi, and everything gets worse. The Galrezi are obliged to live in a kind of ghetto, and Pelly D. move with her mother and her sister, both Galrezi, to a small apartment. Her brother flees from the conscription, going to Ultramarine, the other continent of the planet Home from Home. Her father, who is Atsumisi, abandons like a coward his family, and continues trading with and the Atsumisi.
Pelly takes a long time to understand what’s going on, and when she realize, it’s too late, the extermination has begun.
Pelly’s diary ends when the police evacuate the ghetto, taking the Galrezi to a certain death.At the beginning, the diary is quite boring, because it tells the story of a pretentious teenager. But, little by little, the events lead us to the sinister end, without any reaction of the people who believed war and extermination could not exist on their planet. In fact, the author, L.J. Adlington, drew her inspiration from diary found in the Warsaw ghetto in the 50’. I recommend this original book that mixes science fiction and fight against the racism.
