The Student

In the mid-21st century, the United States faces a crisis. Burdened by the rising cost of caring for an aging population of special-needs adults born to older parents, the government enacts sweeping population-control measures: every citizen must marry by age twenty-five and produce two children by age thirty.

Those who fail to comply are subject to sterilization.

Twenty-three-year-old Catherine "Cat" Ubalve is entering her final years of medical school. But with the government's deadline rapidly approaching, Cat is forced to choose between the career she has worked toward for years and the family the government demands she create.

Everything changes after a chance encounter introduces her to a hidden community living beyond government oversight. There, people make their own choices and reject the rigid rules that govern the rest of society. Drawn to their freedom, Cat begins to question everything she has been taught, but joining them would mean abandoning medical school, leaving behind her family, and becoming a fugitive.

Soon, Cat must decide whether to submit to a future chosen for her, or risk everything for freedom. The wrong decision could cost her not only her dreams, but her life.

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E-raamat: 12. august 2026