 The Hunger Games is a 2008 dystopian novel by the American writer Suzanne Collins . It is written in the voice of 16 @-@ year @-@ old Katniss Everdeen , who lives in the future , post @-@ apocalyptic nation of Panem in North America . The Capitol , a highly advanced metropolis , exercises political control over the rest of the nation . The Hunger Games is an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12 – 18 from each of the twelve districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle to the death . 
