Spunk: A Fable

O'Reilly delivers a fascinating novel about a group of women and girls who, in postapocalyptic New York City, belong to an Amazonian society that believes men are no longer a necessity in the world. In an effort to survive, the women%E2%80%94who live in a forest that now covers Manhattan%E2%80%94capture men to perpetuate their community, only to exterminate them when they have served their purpose. O'Reilly's characters are well drawn, and her prose straightforward and startling: "At first, and at Buffy's suggestion, the women had tried a sort of rough-and-ready castration technique that involved twine and a sharp knife, but the results were predictable: death by exsanguination." Highly original and visceral, O'Reilly's book announces itself like a newborn baby straight from the womb: with a guttural cry that abounds with possibility.