{"product_id":"the-cleft-9780060834876","title":"The Cleft","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom Doris Lessing, \"one of the most important writers of the past hundred years\" (\u003cem\u003eTimes\u003c\/em\u003e of London), comes a brilliant, darkly provocative alternative history of humankind's beginnings.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this fascinating and beguiling novel, Lessing confronts the themes that inspired much of her early writing: how men and women manage to live side by side in the world and how the troublesome particulars of gender affect every aspect of our existence.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the last years of his life, a Roman senator retells the history of human creation and reveals the little-known story of the Clefts, an ancient community of women living in an Edenic coastal wilderness. The Clefts have neither need nor knowledge of men; childbirth is controlled through the cycles of the moon, and they bear only female children. But with the unheralded birth of a strange new child--a boy--the harmony of their community is suddenly thrown into jeopardy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLessing, Doris:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cp\u003eWinner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature, Doris Lessing was one of the most celebrated and distinguished writers of our time, the recipient of a host of international awards. She wrote more than thirty books--among them the novels \u003cem\u003eMartha Quest\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Golden Notebook\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eThe Fifth Child\u003c\/em\u003e. She died in 2013.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50491350090002,"sku":"9780060834876","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_e629d993-9121-474c-9957-156b80c2926b.jpg?v=1730539432","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-cleft-9780060834876","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}