(Ed. Note: The time is the very, very near future. The place, a very real and vivid New York City. The future of the male population, not so good. Among the younger generation, monogamy is increasingly replaced by polygamy. Wars decrease. Crime falls. Football attendance is down. Ballet is up.
Dystopia? Utopia? It all depends on your point of view. But Bonnie Rozanski’s Y is one of the most fully imagined, provocative novels I have read this year. –S.W.)
And now for something truly different! Women who are infected can only give birth to girls. With Science unable to stop it, and the contagion rippling worldwide in an AIDS-like pandemic, how will society cope in an increasingly female world?
Here’s the set-up:
With the help of her husband Larry, a computer analyst, Deborah tracks the epicenter to New York City, from which the infection is already bursting forth. And, as years pass, despite hundreds of laboratories at work on it, the microbe continues to overrun borders and envelop the Earth. With Science unable to stop it, and the contagion rippling worldwide in an AIDS-like pandemic, how will society cope in an increasingly female world?
Unquestionably, some changes are inevitable. Companies hire more women; who assume more leadership positions, replacing the male hierarchy with their own female style of management, to great success. Among the younger generation, monogamy is increasingly replaced by polygamy. Wars decrease. Crime falls. Football attendance is down. Ballet is up.
“Y” follows three New York City families for an entire generation, each with its own story. The blue-collar husband proves unable to deal with a wife who has become the major bread-winner. The yuppie husband does well in his career but cannot resist the temptations of a workplace with limitless young women. His wife, turned off from men entirely, will leave him and become a force to reckon with in her own right. And, along the way, the children of all three families struggle to find mates and to secure their own places in this new, topsy-turvy world.
At once a fast-paced thriller of a gripping race for a cure, a speculative tale about a futuristic society, and a comic battle between the sexes, “Y” is, above all, the story of real people caught up in a society they no longer recognize.
–Christine A. Zelenak
“This science-based thriller, which takes place in New York City, will keep you sitting at the edge of your seat. The well-developed characters experience realistic situations, making the story seem very real… I highly recommend this book, which will appeal to a wide variety of audiences.”
–Love2Read
“…this is a science fiction novel of epic proportion. Because seriously, what could be more epic than the major loss of the male species….
With an exciting cast of the good, the bad and the ugly, a thrilling scientific plot of genes, cloning and the Y chromosome, a take over by women everywhere in addition to crazy actresses, bombings and nature at it’s best, you won’t be disappointed with this book.”
–Jen the Bibliophile
BANANA KISS, Bonnie’s debut novel, told from the point of view of a young schizophrenic girl, came out to excellent reviews in 2005. To the many who ask whether the author is writing from experience, Bonnie says, “Not at all. BANANA KISS
is based entirely on the application of imagination to months of research on schizophrenia and quantum theory.” “On the other hand,” she adds after a pause, “I did hear Robin’s voice.”
Her second novel, BORDERLINE, was a YA finalist at the 2007 Foreword Book of the Year, as well as a silver medalist at that year’s Independent Publisher Books awards. Bonnie has several other equally wonderful manuscripts in the wings, awaiting the perspicacious publisher who recognizes their brilliance.
Just use the slider at right of your screen below to scroll through a complete, updated list of free contemporary Kindle titles, and click on an icon like this one (at right) to read a free sample right here in your browser! Titles are sorted in reverse chronological order so you can easily see new freebies.