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The year is 2031 and all the dire predictions of environmentalists are coming true: extreme weather bringing storms, floods and intense heat; and the genetically modified 'killer rape' is rampant everywhere. A rejuvenation pill has been developed but no one is going to enjoy eternal youth for long: the experts forecast that the world's ecosystems will collapse in five years' time. Women have taken over power to try and save the world from the mess men have got it in. But there is opposition in the form of the MASCULO movement that is aiming to reassert male power by violent means if necessary. At the same time apocalyptic sects are proliferating. Sebastian, the central figure in this novel, appears to be one of the good guys, a Greenpeace activist in his youth, he now has an important position in the Democracy Centre. But in his private life he is attempting to restore his male pride: for the last two years he has kept his wife locked up in the cellar. But his attempts to do away with her so he can live with his new love lead to disaster

It is 1996 and Anne Strelau is sitting on a plane bound for London, heading towards the man she has loved since her teens. Having tired of the pretence of living 'normally', she has given in to her 'madness' and decided to confront the object of her passion, Peter Hemstedt. In fact, there is little that is 'normal' about Anne. Most obviously, at 112 kg, she is grotesquely overweight. "This is Not a Love Song" is the story of Anne's ups and of her unhappy childhood, her miserable adolescence, and the start of her obsession with her weight. 'The decision to embark on the first diet is a decisive, if not the most decisive, step in a girl's life', she decides. 'In any case, it is more important than the hugely overrated event of losing your virginity.' First anorexic then bulimic, she measures her self-worth in kilos and boyfriends. Then she falls for handsome, successful Hemstedt. When her love is not returned, she fakes 'normality' and gets a job. But still nothing works. 'I have reached a point', she records in her mid-thirties, 'where I no longer believe in anyone or anything, apart from chocolate.' A brilliantly black comedy about obesity, adult disappointment and cynicism, wars, ecological disasters and passing fashions, "This is Not a Love Song" serves up irresistibly macabre chic lit with a thick coating of grime and fat.