Children of Men

The Children of Men by PD James, 241 pages

In the near future, the human race has suddenly, inexplicably become sterile.  Theodore Faron is an Oxford history professor, teaching ever-dwindling numbers of ever-aging students, increasingly a relic of the past in a world that has no future.  His only child died as a toddler in a tragic accident, and his role in the accident destroyed his marriage.  When a former student asks him to deliver a message to his cousin Xan, the dictatorial Marshal of England, he reluctantly obliges, never suspecting that events are already conspiring to turn the ineffectual resistance group to which she belongs into the most important people on the planet.

James, best known as a mystery writer, is trying something different here, though like Cormac McCarthy's The Road, with which it shares much, The Children of Men is not really a science fiction novel - the unexplained apocalypse is only a background intended to throw themes into sharp relief.  James pulls this off superbly, creating a fast-paced story with memorable characters and an ambiguous ending that leaves the readers asking the same questions the author has been asking all along.