THIS BOOK HAS BEEN FOUND!


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In an amazing development, I finally found the title! It is, without a shadow of a doubt, This Time of Darkness by H.M. Hoover. I ordered a reprint from Amazon.com, read through it all, and it's the one. Thanks to all the people who helped and gave tips. You know who you are!





I'm suddenly seized by a desire to find a book that I read as a kid, but I can't remember the author or title, only a little bit about the plot. First, a little background.

Throughout most of the past 40 years, but especially in the 60's and 70's, the theme of undergound cities was very popular. Usually as the result of a war or environmental destruction, humanity was forced to retreat underground and live, usually a life of ignorance and superstition, until some sterling hero emerged to save them.

The classic example of this is Outside by Andre Norton, and The City Under Ground by Suzanne Martel, but it's neither of these.

The story I'm thinking of has humanity confined to one underground city, organized in levels, kind of like a gigantic underground building. Reading is prohibited, and water is in short supply. The main characters are a boy and girl maybe about 10 years old. The girl's name might be Anne. The city is, for the most part, cramped, dirty and generally boring. Anne's school teaches them with talking computers and pictures, which she can't stand and views as stupid and boring. Anne, however, has a secret. An old woman who shared her family apartment had forbidden books, and taught her to read.

Legends tell of "level eighty", at the top of the city, where everything is wonderful and beautiful. When she meets the boy, who claims to have been born outside in Medford County Hospital, they decide to go for it. Since water is in scare supply, Anne's mother is paranoid that the boy might have drunk some or flushed the "sanit", as they call it. They ascend the levels quite easily. I think that there were just stairs or ramps going up and down. I seem to remember some trouble at level 48, but they managed to keep going. Eventually, the levels are uninhabited, and they get to something called "Sub basement 2" or some such, where a strange woman appears out of nowhere and is about to help them.

That's all I can remember, except that I'm pretty sure that the book was written before 1984.

If anybody has any clue as to the title of this book, a quick e-mail would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.