The Prepper Room

The year is 2031 and all the dire predictions of environmentalists are coming true: extreme weather bringing storms, floods and intense heat; and the genetically modified 'killer rape' is rampant everywhere. A rejuvenation pill has been developed but no one is going to enjoy eternal youth for long: the experts forecast that the world's ecosystems will collapse in five years' time. Women have taken over power to try and save the world from the mess men have got it in. But there is opposition in the form of the MASCULO movement that is aiming to reassert male power by violent means if necessary. At the same time apocalyptic sects are proliferating. Sebastian, the central figure in this novel, appears to be one of the good guys, a Greenpeace activist in his youth, he now has an important position in the Democracy Centre. But in his private life he is attempting to restore his male pride: for the last two years he has kept his wife locked up in the cellar. But his attempts to do away with her so he can live with his new love lead to disaster. A hugely entertaining novel about feminism, masculinity and the battle between the sexes for domination which is full of grotesque humour and highly-charged eroticism.

Born in Hamburg in 1961, Karen Duve is one of Germany's leading contemporary writers. She has won eight literary prizes, the latest being the Kassel Literature Prize for Grotesque Humour. While working on her book Anständig essen [eating responsibly], in which she tried out a number of ethically based forms of eating, she became a committed vegetarian and a well-known figure on German television arguing, for example, with representatives of the agricultural industry. As well as polemics, short stories and children's books, she has written five novels; one of which, Taxi, has been made into a film. The Prepper Room is her most recent novel.