Quinzinzinzili is a science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 novel written in 1935 by the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 author Régis Messac (1893 - 1945).
This was one of the first post-cataclysmic novels.

At the time of World War II (which Messac anticipated), a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese scientist develops a chemical reaction that combines the oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere. The air becomes unbreathable for the majority of species, and humanity is swept with mass extinction.
Ten children left in a deep cave survive and find the purified Earth.
The man who accompanies them, their tutor, witnesses the creation of a new humanity.