Considered one of the great dystopian novels—alongside Anthony Burgess's <em>A Clockwork Orange</em> and Aldous Huxley's <em>BraveNew World</em>—Ira Levin's frightening glimpse into the future continues to fascinate readers even forty years after publication.<br /><br />The story is set in a seemingly perfect global society. Uniformityis the defining feature; there is only one language and all ethnicgroups have been eugenically merged into one race called “TheFamily.“ The world is ruled by a central computer called UniCompthat has been programmed to keep every single human on thesurface of the earth in check. People are continually drugged bymeans of regular injections so that they can never realize theirpotential as human beings, but will remain satisfied and cooperative. They are told where to live, when to eat, whom to marry,when to reproduce. even the basic facts of nature are subject tothe UniComp's will—men do not grow facial hair, women do notdevelop breasts, and it only rains at night.<br /><br />With a vision as frightening as any in the history of the sciencefiction genre, <em>This Perfect Day</em> is one of Ira Levin`s most hauntingnovels.