Hommes protégés

de Robert Merle

The time: the 1970s. The place: America. A menacing epidemic, Encephalitis 16, sweeps the nation. Women, boys and men over sixty are mysteriously immune. Too late, the President realizes that the male population is dying. Congressmen appoint their wives to succeed them. The Administration changes hands: the new President, a woman. Government and business are ruled by elite wonder-women. A hand-picked group of scientist and doctors is placed in Blueville, a closely guarded "Protected Zone", and assigned the task of finding a vaccine for E-16. And they must find it fast - men on the outside are choosing to be sterilized - or castrated - rather than face death. Heterosexual relations have been banned, and corporate and political power has been usurped by the "Castratos". The race is on.