Minulý školský rok prežil Rafo Chačadorjan len tak-tak s odretými ušami. Tento rok sa začína sľubne. Vďaka pani učiteľka Donatellovej ho prijmú na umeleckú školu. Jeho talent a živá predstavivosť sa môžu konečne naplno prejaviť. Dostáva sa medzi nabifľovaných horenosov. Podarí sa mu presvedčiť ich, že nie je žiadny outsider? Operácia Začni žiť sa môže začať!
Brian is on his way to Canada to visit his estranged father when the pilot of his small prop. plane suffers a heart attack. Brian is forced to crash-land the plane in a lake--and finds himself stranded in the remote Canadian wilderness with only his clothing and the hatchet his mother gave him as a gift prior to his departure. The only survivor of a plane crash, Brian spends 54 days in the wilderness, learning to cope with only a hatchet given him by his mother and also learning to survive his parents' divorce.
In this dystopian world, books are replaced by mind-probes, unusable by narrator Spaz 15ish, because of the epilepsy he is named for. After the "Big Shake" apocalyptic earthquake fells "backtime" skyscrapers and civilization, Normals survive in the concrete-smog grey Urb by working for "cut your red" killer gang bosses. Sent to rob Ryter, the boy instead gains a mentor, "gummy" old mostly toothless writer, who guides their quest by the sun. Far away, where Spaz was banished for his illness, beloved unrelated younger sister Bean is dying.