Read: February 11, 2015
Summary: Piecing together from scraps of documents and oral histories passed down through generations, a Roman historian narrates the story of humanity’s secret history and creation. In the beginning, humanity consisted of solely females who had no knowledge of nor need for men. Reproduction was controlled through the cycles of the moon and only females were born. The community, who called themselves “Clefts”, found themselves in unexpected jeopardy with the first birth of a boy. With the increasing number of male children, left to die on the scared rock, the Cleft, a new tribe of males began to emerge. Humanity’s story takes a turn with two tribes coming into contact with other to try coexist with each other.
My thoughts: It was an interesting and very different book from others I’ve read. Having watched a special on the Man Booker Prize years ago, Doris Lessing, among other authors, were doing readings from their books along with describing what inspired the story. It stuck with that The Cleft would be an interesting read. It wasn’t what I expecting and portions of the book were a bit odd.