23. The Children of Men by P.D. James

In 1995, the last child on Earth was born in Buenos Aires. On January 1, 2021, the boy, Joseph Ricardo, was killed in a pub brawl. It has been twenty-five years since human conception has occurred, and the world is slowing turning old and full of despair. Set in England, the country is under the despotic rule of Xan Lyppiatt, the Warden of England. It is an increasingly different world, and readers receive glimpses of the terrifying state of affairs through Xan’s cousin, Oxford history professor Theo Faron, who records his thoughts in a private diary. What readers learn is not pleasant – the old and infirm are urged to take part in mass suicides (the Quietus), immigrants are used for slave labor, women push prams full of dolls around the streets of England to make up for not having babies, kittens are christened and cat births are attended by invitation, and the Isle of Man is now a prison ruled only by fellow prisoners.

All of this changes when Theo meets up with a radical group called the Five Fishes. Knowing that Theo is Xan’s cousin, they use him to help persuade the Warden to change some of his ways of ruling England. The group especially becomes powerful and dangerous when Julian, a female student in the group, becomes pregnant.

If you have seen the recent movie version of this novel, you will be in for a surprise. Much better than the movie, it is vastly different in almost every way except for the pregnancy factor. Although slow going in the beginning, this is a fast paced futuristic tale that will appeal to readers who liked The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.