It's not just a game when you're running for your life.
Every night they tuned in to the nation's favourite prime-time TV game show.
They all watched, from the sprawling slums to the security-obsessed enclaves of the rich. They all watched the ultimate live death game as the contestants tried to bet not the clock, but annihilation at the hands of the Hunters. Survive thirty days and win the billion dollar jackpot - that was the promise. But the odds were brutal and the game rigged. Best score so far was eight days.
And now there was a new contestant, the latest running man, staking his life while a nation watched.
Stephen King has been described by the Guardian as 'one of the greatest storytellers of our time', by the Mirror as a 'genius' and by The Sunday Times as 'one of the most fertile storytellers of the modern novel.' In 2003, he was given the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives with his wife, the novelist Tabitha King, for most of the year in Maine, USA.