SOLVED. Adult Sci-Fi: Astronauts return to find Earth population decimated. Read around 1995. Spoiler ahead. [s]

[Joseph]

I read this book when I was younger, so likely 25 years ago. I remember the cover had a drawing of Paris, with the Eiffel Tower fallen into disrepair and neglect.

The story was about a group of astronauts that were on an extended mission, causing time to pause faster on Earth than it did for them. When they got back to Earth, they couldn't reach anyone on their radios, and they noticed that they no longer saw any city lights.

Upon landing they found the cities in ruins, the human population had been decimated, and people had regressed to a more primal, tribal, style of life.

Eventually they find out the cause of this was a miracle fat-loss drug that kept you skinny no matter what; the side effect being that it made you sterile.

[Trilobyte]

The Return

[Kris]

Quotes from Trilobyte's suggestion - The Return by Richard Maynard:

'We think it's the drug that brought about the demise of our culture,' stated Barry softly. Minutes of evening silence, crackles of erupting flames, thoughts detaching slowly and heavily. 'You mean the elixir of youth was the elixir of death? | Paul murmured, 'it's hard to accept universal use, and even harder to accept worldwide sterility.'

Snippet search on Google Books - https://books.google.com/books?output... There are different cover images.

[Joseph]

That's the book! Thank you both!!

[Andy Phillips]

That's frustrating - now that I see the answer I realise I've read it! I read it as The Quiet Place rather than 'The Return'. Sorry I wasn't awake enough to notice it's the same thing back in October!