Pilgrims' Project

In a future where the state decides who belongs together, Roger Bartlett is about to discover that love was never supposed to be a choice. The Marriage Integrator knows what people want before they know it themselves - a gleaming machine that pairs citizens based on subconscious desire, eliminating the chaos of romantic free will. When Roger applies for his assigned wife, he expects compliance. Instead, he gets Julia Prentice - a woman whose beauty immediately unsettles him in ways the Integrator cannot explain. But Julia carries a secret. She's connected to the ghouls, scavengers who roam the car cemeteries outside the city, and the fanatical Captain Taigue is hunting them. Now Roger must choose: the safe life the system has ordained, or a dangerous love that could cost him everything. Robert F. Young writes with lyrical sentiment and sharp wit, crafting a strange, seductive world where the most intimate human decision has been mechanized. It's a story about what happens when someone decides to want the wrong thing - and finds the courage to want it anyway.