Author Description

Considered of the greatest dystopian thrillers ever written - alongside Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World - Ira Levin's frightening glimpse into the future continues to fascinate readers even forty years after first publication. The story is set in a seemingly perfect global society. Uniformity is the defining feature; there is only one language and all ethnic groups have been eugenically merged into one race called 'The Family'. The world is ruled by a central computer that has been programmed to keep every single human on the surface of the earth in check. Citizens are continually drugged by means of regular injections so that they can never realize their potential as human beings, but will remain satisfied and cooperative. They are told where to live, when to eat, whom to marry, when to reproduce. With a vision as frightening as any in the history of the science fiction genre, This Perfect Day is one of Ira Levin's most haunting novels.