Le Silence de la Cité

Cover of 1989 first English edition

Le Silence de la Cité is a 1981 novel by Élisabeth Vonarburg.

Le Silence de la Cité is a post-holocaust novel. (The holocaust created a dearth of men.) The female protagonist, Elisa, is bio-engineered in an underground city founded by elites (who are now diminished to a very few people) to avoid the holocaust. She comes to age during the novel and has some horrifying revelations about the city and the people in it. She leaves the city and confronts the remnants of the outside society, which have become largely patriarchal. She decides to create a new race of people with her special heritable skills. Elisa is described as bisexual, but portrayed largely in heterosexual relationships.

The sequel is Chroniques du Pays des Mères (1992), translated as In the Mothers' Land and The Maerlande Chronicles.

Editions

• Oct 1981, Paris, France: Éditions Denoël- Présence du Futur #327, ISBN 2-207-30327-6. (paperback, as Le Silence de la Cité)
• Jul 1993, Paris, France: Éditions Denoël- Présence du Futur, ISBN 2-207-30327-6. (paperback, as Le Silence de la Cité)
• Aug 1998, Québec, Canada: Éditions Alire, ISBN 2-9221-4522-0. (paperback, as Le Silence de la Cité)

Translations

• 1989, Victoria, BC: Porcépic Tesseract, ISBN 0-88878-277-2. (trade paperback) transl. by Jane Brierley as The Silent City
• 1990, London, UK: The Women's Press, ISBN 0-7043-4218-9. (paperback) transl. by Jane Brierley as The Silent City
• Aug 1992, New York, NY: Bantam Spectra (Spectra Special Editions), ISBN 0-553-29789-9. (paperback, transl. by Jane Brierley as The Silent City) cover art by Oscar Chichoni
• 1997, München, Germany: Heyne Verlag, ISBN 3-453-11911-8. (paperback) transl. by Usch Kiausch into the German as Die schweigende Stadt