The Only Ones

Inez wanders a post-pandemic world, strangely immune to disease, making her living by volunteering as a test subject. She is hired to provide genetic material to a grief-stricken, affluent mother, who lost all four of her daughters within four short weeks. This experimental genetic work is policed by a hazy network of governmental Ethics committees, and threatened by the Knights of Life, religious zealots who raze the rural farms where much of this experimentation is done.

When the mother backs out at the last minute, Inez is left responsible for the product, which in this case is a baby girl, Ani. Inez must protect Ani, who is a scientific breakthrough, keeping her alive, dodging authorities and religious fanatics, and trying to provide Ani with the chilldhood tha Inez never had, which means a stable home and an education.

With a stylish voice, The Only Ones is a time-old story, tender and iconic, about how much we love our children, however they come, as well as a sly commentary on class, politics, and the complexities of reproductive technology.

*Favorite Books of the Year (2015) —Bustle, O, The Oprah Magazine
*Best science fiction and fantasy books of 2015 —The Washington Post
*One of the most anticipated books of 2015 —Dazed & Confused, BuzzFeed

"Breathtaking. [Dibbell has] delivered a debut novel on par with some of the best speculative fiction of the past 30 years; The Only Ones deserves to be shelved alongside Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Nalo Hopkinson's Brown Girl in the Ring, and P. D. James' The Children of Men. It's that good, and that important, and that heartbreakingly beautiful."
—Jason Heller, NPR

''Set in New York City in the near future, The Only Ones calibrates a new normal based on surging of distrust. A pandemic has swept the globe, killing millions, and like aftershocks, pathogens continue to wreak havoc. Mothers hide their children in public toilets to avoid quarantines. People run not only from viruses but also from vaccination drives. A neighbor is someone who could report you for not following public-health protocols... an often-painful exploration of experimental reproduction and what makes a mother and child belong to each other."
—Jane Yong Kim, Bookforum

"Dibbell's major accomplishment (besides publishing her first novel just shy of 70) is her narrator, Inez, blessed and cursed with immunity in a society ravaged by plagues. Inez's voice—a fragmented vernacular that is wise, tough and humane—elevates this dystopian novel..."
—O, The Oprah Magazine

"Fascinating... A heart-piercing tale of love, desire and acceptance. Readers will be mesmerized by Dibbell’s staccato prose as much as they are by the harrowing circumstances this mother and child must endure."
—Nancy Hightower, Washington Post

"A punk-rock take on Sci-Fi, Dibbell’s stylistically inventive debut novel takes place in the very near future..."
—National Post

"A fascinating and daring debut, this novel takes place in a post-pandemic world as a woman named Inez volunteers as a test subject to make a living. When this experimental genetic work backfires, Inez is stuck responsible for a scientific breakthrough in the form of a baby girl named Ani. Peppered with influence from years of music writing, this is a punk-rock science fiction story you won't want to miss."
—PopSugar

"What an incredible book it is. The bizarre reproductive dystopia of The Only Ones is searing. Through the environment of her terrifying near-future and narrator Inez's unmistakable voice, Dibbell probes society with rare insight and maturity that's, simply, important."
—Meredith Turits, Bustle

"Dibbell’s debut novel chillingly imagines the world in the wake of a global pandemic in the latter part of the 21st century. The book illuminates present-day paranoias, but it is further elevated by Dibbell’s trenchant attention to the corrosive nature of social and economic inequality." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

Carola Dibbell is a highly regarded rock critic whose fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Paris Review, Fence, and Black Clock. Writing about books as well as music, Dibbell was a Village Voice contributor for many years. The Only Ones is her debut novel.