Gonerz - Paperback

by John Stoltenberg (Author)

A rampaging virus has mutated from digital to biological and made human beings nearly extinct. To restock the planet with virus-free people, governments of the world have established secure breeding centers surrounded by laserfences to keep out the infected and doomed. In one of these hygienic compounds, Quaran/Clean Ararat, we meet the four heroes of GONERZ. Two are "wombers" and two are "spermers." They are about to turn thirteen. They have grown up as best friends. They know that their government now expects them to procreate. They are constantly pressured to get pregnant. And in the next four months they will learn more about life and death and love and sex than they could ever have imagined. Written in the form of diary entries, GONERZ is a post-apocalyptic fable-an enchanting mix of tender romance, daring adventure, erotic frolic, dark suspense, and broad comedy. From the wide-eyed viewpoint of the womber who narrates the story-in the young chums' winsome slanguage-GONERZ takes us on a playful romp back to puberty, looks in on a plucky foursome and their polyamorous first loves, and tells a spellbinding tale of their encounters with contagion, sexual corruption, body rot, and deadly menace from outside the laserfence. Can the four of them hold on? Will their love for one another survive? Does our species have a future? Or is everyone...GONERZ? ---------------- "I really liked GONERZ. I was charmed by the narrator, by her friends, by the humor and spirit of the style. The book is very assured and I found it very readable, well-paced, a pleasure from page one. The language is alive and lively. I really liked the ending." -Acclaimed science fiction and fantasy novelist MICHAEL MOORCOCK

Author Biography

GONERZ is John Stoltenberg's first novel. He first conceived it in conversations with Andrea Dworkin, his life partner of 31 years, and he drew on his earlier years as a playwright when the characters began to come alive. A long-time activist against sexual violence and a philosopher of gender and ethics, he is the author of "Refusing to Be a Man: Essays on Sex and Justice," "End of Manhood: Parables on Sex and Selfhood, and "What Makes Pornography 'Sexy'?," as well as numerous articles and essays in anthologies. Of "Refusing to Be a Man," Alice Walker said: "This is a book that can change the lives of millions of people. A book that can give hope to the coming generations.... Above all, this book feels true.... I am a better soul for having read it." The New York Times Book Review said of "The End of Manhood": "Stoltenberg's new male...is able to reach beyond gender differences into the humanizing depths of everyone's gender-free soul."