Sister Serenity and the War of 2059

Synopsis

Unexpectedly pregnant in the year 2059, Hannah Woodson and her husband, Noah, run afoul of the American government’s population growth policies. Attractive, smart, and strong willed Hannah wants to be a good citizen and do the right thing. At first willing to follow the law, she later comes to believe abortion would be wrong and decides to challenge the law and have the baby.

America in 2059 is a nearly dysfunctional country, weakened by onerous debt, systemic terrorism and a shortage of protein to feed an exploding population. The business-controlled administration, surviving only with support from China, is under attack by a fundamentalist religious group led by Sister Precious Serenity. Hannah and Noah, an ordinary American couple, are caught between these two forces. They survive only after experiencing extraordinary pain and finally, extraordinary personal growth. When a sadistic government agent, Sweeney, orders her to abort, Hannah is faced with a vicious conundrum. If she refuses the abortion, she will be charged with a felony by the government, imprisoned, and her baby put up for adoption. But, if she aborts, she faces retaliation from Sister Serenity's God's Will Party, a movement that terrorizes abortion clinics, often killing the patients.

Hannah decides to fight for her child in the courts. But she is betrayed by Sweeney, and given a two-year sentence in a retraining facility. She goes into hiding where she nearly loses her husband to another woman, Wendy, who turns out to be Sister Serenity's illegitimate daughter. Later, in a God’s Will brokered deal that will force her to reconcile with her husband, but allow her to keep her child, Hannah and Noah appear on the God’s Will sponsored Redemption Show. In a jealous rage, Wendy appears and shoots Hannah before thirty million viewers, killing her unborn child. As the God's Will party consolidates power Hannah and Noah flee for a new life in Chinese managed California.

This story looks at major issues from the perspective of a woman trying to have a child in the face of colliding forces - corrupt secular Government on the one hand and growing fundamentalist religious power on the other. Only Hannah's mental and spiritual growth enable her to survive. This book should have broad appeal as the first novel in this decade to look at the long-term consequences of voter apathy and of relinquishing individual American freedoms in exchange for questionable safety. It should appeal to the readers of top selling fiction books

such as THE HANDMAID'S TALE by Margaret Atwood (Houghton Mifflin - short

listed for the Booker Prize) and recent best selling non fiction books

which express a concern that the American dream is crumbling from

within. Examples of these are DEAD CERTAIN from Simon & Schuster and

TAKEOVER from Little Brown & Co.