Recommendations from our site
“Set in an alternate reality, possibly a dystopian near-future (as in The Water Cure, this is never made explicit), we meet our protagonist Calla as she is allocated a ‘blue ticket’ in the government-sanctioned lottery, which decides which girls should go on to become mothers. A blue ticket marks Calla for a child-free future – one in which she might prioritise independence and career. When we find her a decade or so later she has done just that: she is a scientist by day, hedonist by night. But when she becomes obsessed with the idea of becoming pregnant, and does so by underhand means, she becomes an outlaw and we see how quickly society turns on her.” Read more...
Cal Flyn, Five Books Editor
“Probably the book I most feverishly awaited this season. Set in a world in which young women are randomly allotted their role in life at the onset of puberty (motherhood, or childlessness), that is: relieved of the burden of ‘having it all.’ As with so much speculative fiction, this fantasy world – so alike ours in many ways, and yet so alien in others – offers the opportunity to make close study of aspects of our own society in a vacuum, that is: without the usual baggage that comes with political debate.” Read more...
Cal Flyn, Five Books Editor
