The Book of the Unnamed Midwife

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife opens after a fever has wiped out most of humanity, killing women and infants at far higher rates than men and leaving the survivors in a world where women are scarce, hunted, and traded. The narrator, an obstetric nurse in San Francisco who wakes from a coma to find the city emptied, sets out across the ruined country disguised as a man. She records her journey in a journal, helping women she meets with contraception and escape while avoiding the gangs and self-appointed warlords who hoard female survivors. Framed as a recovered document studied by a future society, the book examines gender, autonomy, and survival when the old rules collapse. It won the 2014 Philip K. Dick Award.