The End of Men
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4.2 • 41 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
"The End of Men is a fiercely intelligent page-turner, an eerily prescient novel, at once thoughtful and highly emotive." --Paula Hawkins, #1 internationally bestselling author of The Girl on the Train
Set in a world where a virus stalks our male population, The End of Men is an electrifying and unforgettable debut from a remarkable new talent that asks: what would our world truly look like without men?
Only men carry the virus. Only women can save us all.
The year is 2025, and a mysterious virus has broken out in Scotland--a lethal illness that seems to affect only men. When Dr. Amanda MacLean reports this phenomenon, she is dismissed as hysterical. By the time her warning is heeded, it is too late. The virus becomes a global pandemic--and a political one. The victims are all men. The world becomes alien--a women's world.
What follows is the immersive account of the women who have been left to deal with the virus's consequences, told through first-person narratives. Dr. MacLean; Catherine, a social historian determined to document the human stories behind the "male plague"; intelligence analyst Dawn, tasked with helping the government forge a new society; and Elizabeth, one of many scientists desperately working to develop a vaccine. Through these women and others, we see the uncountable ways the absence of men has changed society, from the personal--the loss of husbands and sons--to the political--the changes in the workforce, fertility, and the meaning of family.
In The End of Men, Christina Sweeney-Baird turns the unimaginable into the unforgettable.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Sweeney-Baird's philosophically sweeping and emotionally intimate speculative debut, a viral plague that's first detected in 2025 Scotland kills 90% of the world's men within days of contact. A series of narratives follows major players over the next six years, including Glasgow physician Amanda Maclean, who, after being disbelieved about her treatment of Patient Zero, becomes determined to discover the source of the plague; London social historian Catherine Lawrence, who's collecting stories of the plague while protecting her husband and son for as long as possible; and Elizabeth Cooper, a junior CDC pathologist who is in over her head in representing the U.S. research response in Europe. Smaller vignettes highlight other implications of the situation: a woman takes advantage of the situation to kill an abusive spouse, and an entrepreneur becomes rich through a women-only dating site for those who wouldn't previously have considered dating women. The research side of the story line may feel unrealistic to those with a science background, but the personal politics and gender dynamics are spot-on, and readers will feel connected to the main characters' struggles and resilience. Sweeney-Baird is a writer to watch.
