SOLVED. YA environmentalist fantasy about a regular girl and a magical boy who go on a world-saving quest, a glass ring is involved, from at latest the early 2000s but possibly before that. [s]

[Miriam]

I would have read the book between 2000-2005, but it was a library book so I have no idea when it was published.

I remember the author was an environmentalist and I think it was a male British author. It was a fantasy YA novel in which some kind of magical boy from the woods somehow met a normal girl and they had to go on a quest to stop some kind of environmental destruction. The world of the book was similar to the normal world except the people were more violent - if I recall, there were two subtypes of people, one of which was extremely violent and one of which was more neutral, but this was not a thing known by normal people. I remember the girl had brothers who were of this extremely violent type. I also remember a glass ring was an important plot point.
SPOILERS




they were successful, and the world was ended and restarted or somehow renewed, and the premise was that the violent people were eliminated and the world today is populated with the neutral people with the potential for both environmental destruction and violence, or for conservation and peace. The framing device revealed at the very end was that the boy and the girl were now old and married and one of them was telling the story.

[Genesistrine]

Quest for the Faradawn?

[Miriam]

I'm pretty sure that's it! Thank you!

[Genesistrine]

Cheers!