Ten top New Years in literature

A couple of years ago at the Guardian, John Mullan tagged the ten most notable New Years in literature. One title on the list:

The Children of Men by PD James

Is this the glummest new year in recent fiction? On New Year's Day, 2021, "the last human being to be born on earth was killed in a pub brawl". He was 25, a significant age because, in James's dystopian tale, it has been 25 years since a pandemic made all human beings infertile. On the same day Theodore Faron begins his journal of humanity's last days.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Children of Men is on Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders's list of the twelve most unfaithful movie versions of science fiction and fantasy books, Ben H. Winters' list of three books to read before the end of the world, and John Sutherland's list of the five best books about the end of England.

--Marshal Zeringue