Sandra Newman talks to Julia Wheeler

Jane Pearson is camping with her husband Leo and their son Benjamin in the California woods when suddenly every single person with a Y chromosome vanishes from the world. After the disappearance, Jane enters a reality she barely recognises, where those who remain must create new ways of living while coping with devastating grief. Meanwhile, strange video footage called The Men is being broadcast online showing images of the vanished marching through barren, otherworldly landscapes. From the author of The Heavens, this is a gripping and disquieting novel of political utopias and impossible sacrifices that interrogates the dream of a perfect society. Newman talks to journalist Julia Wheeler.