Matty came to Village six years ago, an unruly, dishonest boy taken in by a blind man called Seer. Since then he has grown into the only person able to pass safely through Forest, the wild and increasingly hostile land separating Village from the scattered settlements beyond it — carrying messages back and forth as Forest allows.
Village has always welcomed those who arrive with nothing, but that generosity is fraying. A new marketplace called Trade Mart has taken hold, where people barter away pieces of themselves — memories, talents, even their better nature — for material comforts, and a growing faction wants to seal Village's borders against newcomers for good.
As Matty begins to understand a strange power growing inside him, he sets out on one more journey through Forest, this time to bring back someone Village badly needs before the vote to close its borders is called. The third book in the Giver Quartet, set partly in the community from Gathering Blue, is a quiet meditation on generosity, greed, and what a community owes to strangers.