How’s this for alternative history: the first humans were female, and they were called the Clefts. Why? I do not know. They lived in harmonious bliss, impregnated every so often by “a fertilizing wind or wave”. It had been like this since before anyone could remember. But then there was this child, a child produced with a terrible defect, a “lumpy swelling”, the likes of which they had never seen before. From this child, rape and murder are born, and love, consensual sex, and babies as we now know them — the first of a new race.

This could only be the work of that zany Doris Lessing, who, at age 88, is one of the most lauded novelists of the 20th century. The Cleft examines the interplay of and inherent friction produced by the two genders, using a vehicle - the creation myth - that is as effective as it is original. NPR’s Alan Cheuse reviewed the novel a few days back, and you should listen to it here.