The Boy Who Asked Why

The Boy Who Asked Why is a dystopian parable in the tradition of 1984 and The Book Thief, but written with the tenderness and allegorical weight of Paulo Coelho. At its heart is Arel, an eleven–year–old boy living in Veyronis under the Empire of Order, a state that has perfected obedience and silenced truth under the banners of "Order" and "Peace." His parents serve the Empire, his neighbors bow to it, and his teachers repeat its slogans. To Arel, life begins beautifully: parks filled with laughter, fountains spraying in perfect arcs, parents who hold his hand. But innocence has a way of seeing through masks. Arel begins to notice cracks—neighbors who vanish overnight, smiles that do not reach the eyes, soldiers carrying guns in a city that claims to be at peace. And so he does what children do best: he asks questions. "Why do soldiers carry guns if peace is complete?" "Why are all the apples the same, when trees make them different?" "Why must silence be loyalty?" His questions, innocent but piercing, unsettle adults around him. They remind the people of what they have been forced to forget: that truth does not vanish when hidden, and that obedience without love is a prison. Soon, whispers spread through the city. A child's why becomes the spark that empires fear most. The story is both tender and devastating. Arel's parents are pulled into the storm—first questioned, then broken, finally transformed into symbols alongside their son. When the boy dies in what the Empire calls "an accident," his death becomes the flame of a revolution. The people rise, chanting the forbidden word—WHY—until the Anthem of the Empire can no longer drown it out. Beyond its narrative, The Boy Who Asked Why is a mirror held up to our own world. It is impossible to read it without thinking of Gaza, Ukraine, Syria, or any place where power crushes the innocent and children pay the highest price for wars they never chose. Arel stands as a symbol of every child whose voice is silenced too soon, yet whose memory becomes impossible to erase. The novel asks questions we cannot ignore: What is the price of silence? What happens when obedience is valued more than compassion? Can the voice of one child shake the foundations of an empire? Lyrical, dramatic, and profoundly moving, The Boy Who Asked Why is not just a dystopian tale. It is a parable for the present—a reminder that freedom does not come from answers but from the courage to ask questions, even when they cost us everything. For readers of George Orwell, Khaled Hosseini, and Paulo Coelho, this is a story that blurs the line between fiction and reality, myth and truth. It is not only about a boy in an empire. It is about us, now, wherever fear tries to silence the human heart. And it leaves us with the same haunting, necessary word that toppled Arel's world, and that still burns in ours: Why?