Man!  I can’t believe I’ve just now discovered Carola Dibbell’s The Only Ones almost a decade after its first publication.  Despite this, in 2024, amid ever-restricting abortion laws and the targeting of IVF, still-emerging from COVID-19, this book has never been more timely.  In a dystopian, pandemic-riddled future, people will do whatever it takes to keep themselves, and their children, alive.  With commentary on (largely Catholic) rhetoric concerning the sanctity of life, this book explores the ways in which a human life can be created, sustained, and destroyed.  Told in the unforgettable matter-of-fact, self-reliant, working-class voice of Inez, a rare “hardy” immune to disease, it is an incredibly moving story about parenthood, love, and survival.