After a global catastrophe called the Great Reduction, the number of people living on Earth has become fixed, remaining a constant three billion. The concept of death no longer exists. Instead people are reborn anywhere on the planet with an in-code that keeps track of information about all their previous incarnations. Humankind is no longer made up of individuals - people are only particles making up one composite organism called The Living. These particles live happily and die happily, according to a government-determined schedule. All of society is connected directly from the brain to the social network (Socio) and family and country are now of no importance. Society is global, and attachment to parents and children is denounced as a deviation. Yet - there is one man born without an in-code - a spare human being. His birth increases the number of The Living by one, which threatens global harmony. Who is the man known as 'Zero' and how will The Living survive? Anna Starobinets has created a truly enthralling, disturbing and unique anti-utopian fantasy novel that will have the reader gripped from page one.