Hilary Smith
Radio Interview
About The Book
The year is 2102: due to the widespread use of sex robots, men and women live solitary lives of sterile pleasure. In this new world, people's bodies and minds are tightly regulated. Babies are conceived from eggs and sperm that are prescreened for all known genetic disorders. Furthermore, infectious disease is virtually eradicated. Hormones are manipulated starting from childhood. As part of the population control agenda, everything from opera to Led Zeppelin is illegal - no reminders of love or human lust. Scientists and engineers can re-create every body part and internal organ - except the elusive womb, at least, not yet. Women are still required for procreation, but motherhood is also tightly regulated, a privilege and not a right.
Hannah is a "natural", as in a naturally conceived human being; all her life she has been a social outcast. She is 20 years old, just starting her career as a nurse; she and her nostalgic mother deeply desire a baby. Hannah is willing to go through the humiliating tests and painful procedures and to pay unexpected costs. She unwittingly involves herself in gruesome experiments and secret government programs. To protect herself and her child, Hannah becomes a victim as well as an accomplice. Yet it's too late when she realizes just how much she had to.