Near future. New York, 1999. Thirty-five million residents lead a miserable existence, using everything as housing: abandoned cars, ships, subway stations, factories and mills. Soy, lentils, and margarine are the main foods here, and drinking water is the greatest delicacy. Ecology has been ruined, production has stopped, and natural resources have run out. Everything speaks of the impending end of the world. What can save civilization from terrible destruction? Only control over birthrates…
Jules Verne Prize for the best novel of 1980.