Le Silence de la Cité

Cover of 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 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.

Editions

• 1981
• ? - English translation by Jane Brierley as The Silent City