The House of the Scorpion is a 2002 science fiction young adult novel by Nancy Farmer. It is set in the future and mostly takes place in Opium, a country which separates Aztlán (formerly Mexico) and the United States. The main character Matteo Alacrán, or Matt, is a young clone of a drug lord of the same name, usually called "El Patrón". It is a story about the struggle to survive as a free individual and the search for a personal identity. The Lord of Opium, Raised as a clone of El Patrón, the ruler of the land of Opium, the 14-year-old Matt is not entirely ready to fill the shoes of his predecessor. The daily struggles of ruling are made even more difficult by the desperation of the people living in the lands surrounding his own; an ecological disaster has ravaged them almost to the point of no return. His enemies are many, but Matt finds himself equally afraid of his own potential to become every bit as bloodthirsty and ruthless as the tyrant from whom he was cloned.