Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel written by American writer Ray Bradbury. The book consists of 158 pages, following the main protagonist Guy Montag, who lives in a society where books have been outlawed and fireman make fires instead of putting them out.

A book description provided by the Bookreads website says, “Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.”

In 1954, Fahrenheit 451 won the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature and the Commonwealth Club of California Gold Medal. It later won the Prometheus “Hall of Fame” Award in 1984 and a “Retro” Hugo Award in 2004. More relevant than ever a half-century later, Fahrenheit 451 has achieved the rare distinction of being both a literary classic and a perennial bestseller.

Reviews for the books on Bookreads can all agree that, “The book ends on a high note of hope. Despite all the violence and unethical morals, Ray Bradbury leaves us with one message; There is always light and hope in ever dark situation,” commented Gyan Bhambhani.