The Book of the Unnamed Midwife

(Paperback)

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Philip K. Dick Award Winner for Distinguished Science Fiction When she fell asleep, the world was doomed. When she awoke, it was dead. In the wake of a fever that decimated the earth's population-killing women and children and making childbirth deadly for the mother and infant-the midwife must pick her way through the bones of the world she once knew to find her place in this dangerous new one. Gone are the pillars of civilization. All that remains is power-and the strong who possess it. A few women like her survived, though they are scarce. Even fewer are safe from the clans of men, who, driven by fear, seek to control those remaining. To preserve her freedom, she dons men's clothing, goes by false names, and avoids as many people as possible. But as the world continues to grapple with its terrible circumstances, she'll discover a role greater than chasing a pale imitation of independence. After all, if humanity is to be reborn, someone must be its guide.

Reviews

The science fiction analog to the Zika crisis. Slate As her debut novel, The Book of the Unnamed Midwife captures the spirit of Elisons artistry. The human capacity to survive is something authors have explored for as long as science fiction has existed as a genre, but Elison brings to it her own definitions of sexuality, resourcefulness, and determination. The Daily Californian Elison paints a world so empty of long-term hope and driven by short-term desperation that youll be haunted by it even when not flipping the pages, yet the barest glimmer of light on the futures horizon will keep you moving forward. Adrian Liang, Amazon Book Review Meg Elisons exploration of femininity and womens inequality is unflinchingly honest. She doesnt hold back when considering the differences between men and women, those that naturally exist and those that are constructed. Particularly, I appreciated Elisons ability to examine the ways in which women are treated when the laws that protect them are gone. In other words, Elison shows that it wouldnt take much for society to regress. That the progress weve made is an illusion unless people enforce it themselves. Word After Word Elisons future where men outnumber women ten to one or more is brutal and frightening, mostly because it exposes how thin [a] veneer of personhood women have now. Book Riot The Road to Nowhere trilogy asks big questions about a world thats more possible than we might imagine, and its a radically queer treatise on the future of sex. LitReactor

Author Bio

Meg Elison is a high school dropout and a graduate of UC Berkeley. Her debut novel, The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, won the 2014 Philip K. Dick Award. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and writes like she's running out of time.