Same guy who wrote Clockwork Orange, although this book makes that look kind of happy. It is a dystopian sci-fi book set in the not so distant future in England. Overpopulation has become a massive problem and the book begins with a society where women are scorned, life is cheap in a very literal sense and homosexual men are held above heteros. There is a highly encouraged, but not forced, 1-birth limit and even having one child is a massive social stigma. Things go down hill from there, and the pendulum swings back and forth as the society goes through several drastic changes in ideals and morals.

Burgess's mastery of the language is astounding, this was the first book since grade school that I needed a dictionary for occasionally. It is extremely well written, but moves a bit slow and there is absolutely no happiness in the book. Everything is horrible and you would be hard pressed to find a more grim prediction of the future.