Hadrian's Lover (Paperback)

What if you lived in a world where homosexuality was the norm and all forms of heterosexual behavior were illegal? Hadrian's Lover is set in the near future at a time when the human population has grown to such excess that the earth is no longer able to sustain humanity's astronomical numbers. Poverty, starvation, and disease are rampant. Only the country of Hadrian seems able to defend itself against the ravages of an overpopulated planet by restricting its population growth and encasing its country behind a defensive wall. Procreation does not happen by chance in Hadrian. There are no unwanted pregnancies. No accidents. All pregnancies occur through in vitro fertilization, and every citizen of Hadrian is responsible for rearing one of Hadrian's children. Heterosexuality is deemed the ill that has led humanity to the dire conditions mankind now faces. In Hadrian, no one dares to express interest in the opposite sex, and if discovered acting on heterosexual instincts, one is either exiled to the outside world or subjected to reeducation. Hadrian's Lover tells the story of Todd Middleton, a teenage boy struggling to keep the secret of his heterosexuality. Watch, and feel with him as he suffers the indignities of a society determined to "cure" him of his plight. Patricia Marie Budd is a high school English teacher living in northern Alberta, Canada. Having taught for over twenty years she has been a safe zone for LGBT* students over the decades. Hadrian's Lover is her third novel.