The year is 1844. The Ice Cream Woman appears in a London workhouse and immediately gives birth to a strange baby. The year is 1845. In the north of England, in the village of Thunder Spit, a furry child appears, a foundling with feet like palms. He is adopted by the local Pastor. The child is destined to become a God-fearing outcast. The year is 1845. In London, a fat girl is born to the royal taxidermist and his medium wife. The child is destined to become a famous cook. The year is 2010. In the UK there is a Fertility Crisis: all women have become infertile. Those who have stronger nerves have monkeys instead of children. Veterinarian Bobby Sullivan is thriving, but one mistake upends his life and he's forced to flee to remote Thunder Spit. The veterinarian is destined to become the head of a new tribe of Homo Britannicus. "Child of the Ark" by Liz Jensen is a robust, witty and extravagant saga worthy of Dickens about the quirks of evolution and the wonders of existence - for the first time in Russian.