A Publishers Weekly Best Publication of 2016 and Philip K. Dick Award Winner

When she fell asleep, the world was doomed. When she awoke, it had been dead.

In the wake of a fever that decimated the earth’s population—killing females and children and producing childbirth deadly for the mother and infant—the midwife must pick her way through the bones from the world she once knew to discover her put in place this dangerous new one. Eliminated are the pillars of civilization. Everything remains is power—and the solid who possess it.

A few women like her survived, though they are scarce. Also fewer are secure in the clans of men, who, driven by fear, look for to control those remaining. To preserve her freedom, she dons men’s clothing, goes by false names, and avoids as many people as it can be. But simply because the world continues to grapple using its awful circumstances, she’ll locate a role higher than chasing a pale imitation of independence.

In the end, if humanity is usually to be reborn, someone must be its guide.