Scholastic will be publishing another novel in its mega-selling Hunger Games franchise. The trilogy by Suzanne Collins, which launched in 2008 with the titular title, has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide.
The forthcoming work, currently known as "the untitled Panem novel" (referencing the fictional country where the series is set), is slated for May 19, 2020. Scholastic said the work will "revisit the world of Panem 64 years before the events of The Hunger Games, on the morning of the reaping of the Tenth Hunger Games."
David Levithan at Scholastic bought world English rights to the book from Rosemary Stimola at the Stimola Literary Studio. Scholastic plans to publish the work simultaneously in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
Scholastic trade president Ellie Berger said the novel will give Hunger Games fans, as well as the uninitiated, "an entirely new perspective on this modern classic.” Collins added that she opted to return to the world she created in the trilogy "to explore the state of nature, who we are, and what we perceive is required for our survival." The author added: "The reconstruction period ten years after the war, commonly referred to as the Dark Days—as the country of Panem struggles back to its feet—provides fertile ground for characters to grapple with these questions and thereby define their views of humanity.”
