"Remembrance: mine and theirs..."You remember them and now so do I."
In November, 2025, an extremely lethal virus appears in Scotland. The disease affects only those with the XY chromosomes (men) and has a 90% fatality rate. The virus spreads globally very quickly and there is no treatment.
What does a world without men look like? The narrative consists of first person stories from the women left behind to make sense of the new world. The doctors, social historians, virologists frantically trying to create a vaccine, and others whose lives have been destroyed leaving a void that can never be filled. The losses of fathers, husbands, sons, friends, and relatives change the entire meaning of life for all who survived. Of course there are shifts in politics, work, education, and the meaning of home and family. NO SPOILERS.
I was blown away by the overwhelming emotion in these pages and found it so compelling that I could not put it down. How prescient a novel, written before the current COVID-19 pandemic, to be right on target with the many ways in which humans react to this devastating disease. We are a social people, and the isolation and grief are universal reactions to an event of this magnitude (though thankfully our current pandemic is nowhere near as destructive nor is it gender specific). The stories give a glimpse of how enormous the impact would be if the world suddenly lost almost all the men. Of course there could have been many more "stories" but just thinking of the cataclysmic effects is very scary. Because of all the unanswered questions, I believe this would be a fantastic novel for a book club with so many aspects to discuss. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.
Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for this e-book ARC to read, review, and highly recommend.
This is a debut standalone and is not part of any series.
Genre - futuristic, dystopian, disease, fiction
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