The divine child

the long version

Madeleine Barthelemey is pregnant with twins. On the advice of her doctor, she decides to undertake their education in utero. Nine months later, Celine is born - a daughter whose cleverness and erudition vanish the moment she enters the world. Witnessing the fate of his once-brilliant and now dull-witted sister, the urbane, well-educated, but also conniving Louis rejects birth altogether and embarks on a campaign of prenatal rebellion. His mother tries to starve him out; he retaliates by attacking her internal organs. Guerrilla warfare is thereafter carried out between mother and son, and in the process Louis's fetal crusade becomes a cause celebre - he soon emerges as the first neonate to become both a cult figure and a powerful media icon, eventually demanding, and receiving, an audience with God.