Woman seeks man in nightmare world...

 

But, for Jill Hately, getting one isn’t so easy. She has almost everything else a beautiful young woman could want: an apartment overlooking the river, a cottage in the country, a trabbie, and an MX222. And yet she feels strangely un-fulfilled. When she happens upon an old journal dating from 2017, a diary that belonged to one of her ancestors, an illegal document that her mother should have handed in to be destroyed, she immediately realizes what is missing from her life. But this is 2089, and these days most men spend their non-working hours in the largely derelict tunnels underneath the city, and relationships between the sexes are discouraged, indeed, are almost banned. Nonetheless, Jill finds a way to get herself a man and, despite strong opposition from the Minister of Wants, John is brought up to the surface.

 

John moves in with Jill, and Jill feels her life has taken on a new dimension. They begin to live the kind of life she has read about, the kind of life she prefers. But then disaster strikes, and John is taken from her. Jill is told she will never see him again. And that appeals are not allowed. Can she get John back? And, even if she can, what future can they have in this nightmarish world?

 

About 59000 words.