<P> The Hunger Games universe is a dystopia set in Panem, a country consisting of the wealthy Capitol and 12 districts in varying states of poverty . Every year, children from the districts are selected to participate in a compulsory annual televised death match called The Hunger Games . </P> <P> The novels were all well received . In August 2012, the series ranked second, beaten only by the Harry Potter series in NPR's poll of the top 100 teen novels, which asked voters to choose their favorite young adult books . On August 17, 2012, Amazon announced The Hunger Games trilogy as its top seller, surpassing the record previously held by the Harry Potter series . As of 2014, the trilogy has sold more than 65 million copies in the U.S. alone (more than 28 million copies of The Hunger Games, more than 19 million copies of Catching Fire, and more than 18 million copies of Mockingjay). The Hunger Games trilogy has been sold into 56 territories in 51 languages to date . </P> <P> The Hunger Games trilogy takes place in an unspecified future time, in the dystopian, post-apocalyptic nation of Panem, located in North America . The country consists of a wealthy Capitol city, located in the Rocky Mountains, surrounded by twelve (originally thirteen) poorer districts ruled by the Capitol . The Capitol is lavishly rich and technologically advanced, but the districts are in varying states of poverty . The trilogy's narrator and protagonist Katniss Everdeen, lives in District 12, the poorest region of Panem, located in Appalachia, where people regularly die of starvation . As punishment for a past rebellion against the Capitol (called the "Dark Days"), in which District 13 was supposedly destroyed, one boy and one girl from each of the twelve remaining districts, between the ages of 12 and 18, are selected by lottery to compete in an annual pageant called the Hunger Games . The Games are a televised event in which the participants, called "tributes", are forced to fight to the death in a dangerous public arena . The winning tribute and his / her home district are then rewarded with food, supplies, and riches . The purposes of the Hunger Games are to provide entertainment for the Capitol and to remind the districts of the Capitol's power and lack of remorse, forgetfulness, and forgiveness for the failed rebellion of the current competitors' ancestors . </P> <P> The Hunger Games is the first book in the series and was released on September 14, 2008 . </P>

When is the hunger games supposed to take place