Genesis

Actor Felix "Lix" Dern seems to lead the perfect life. Handsome and charming, he's adored and admired by his fans for his looks, for his voice, for his talent, and for his unblemished private life. He has succeeded in courting popularity everywhere--he's the hero of the left and the darling of the right, an ever-twisting weather vane who is celebrated wherever he goes. But Lix guards a secret he believes has blighted his existence since he was a teenager: every woman he sleeps with eventually bears his child. Soon to be a father for the sixth time, Lix feels besieged. To be so fertile is a curse. With this sixth birth looming, he finds himself forced to focus on his ambivalent relationships with the mothers of his other children, from the women with whom he's had brief affairs to those he's loved, like unassuming, quietly determined Alicja or outspoken, audacious Freda. These musings lead him in turn to consider his interactions with his children, and his often complicated connection to their lives. In tis darkly humorous story, Jim Crace charts the sexual history of a loving, baffled man, the sexual emancipation of a city, and the sexual ambiguities of humankind.