The Silent City
{4.5/5} “‘The cities are a relic of the past.’ The program has said it over and over. ‘A buried past, Elisa, a disastrous past. The humans now living don’t need them. They have the right to live their own lives, to decide their own fate. Some legacies can be crushing.'”
The Silent City by Elisabeth Vonarburg, published in French in 1981, English translation 1988
When Elisa is little she is the only child in the City. She eventually finds out that her Grandpa is really a machine. The man she thinks of as her father is not really her father, so he becomes Paul. Paul and Elisa are doing genetic research. Occasionally they look Outside, to see how the barbarians are doing.
It’s about one person finding out about her postapocalyptic world. It’s about people who live for a project, and people who just live their lives.
It’s about what happens when the person closest to you has lied — about a lot of things.
This is the 1st book I’ve read by Vonarburg.