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Naomi Alderman

The Power Hardcover – October 10, 2017

by Naomi Alderman (Author)

4.2 26,651 ratings

Editors' pick Best Science Fiction & Fantasy

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In this stunning bestseller praised as "our era's Handmaid's Tale," a fierce new power has emerged—and only women have it (Washington Post).

In The Power, the world is a recognizable place: there's a rich Nigerian boy who lounges around the family pool; a foster kid whose religious parents hide their true nature; an ambitious American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family.

But then a vital new force takes root and flourishes, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power: they can cause agonizing pain and even death. And, with this small twist of nature, the world drastically resets. From award-winning author Naomi Alderman, The Power is speculative fiction at its most ambitious and provocative, at once taking us on a thrilling journey to an alternate reality, and exposing our own world in bold and surprising ways.

"Captivating, fierce, and unsettling...I was riveted by every page. Alderman's prose is immersive and, well, electric." —New York Times Book Review

Print length

400 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Little, Brown and Company
Publication date

October 10, 2017
Dimensions

6 x 1 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0316547611
ISBN-13

978-0316547611
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Popular Highlights in this book

What are popular highlights?

Already there are parents telling their boys not to go out alone, not to stray too far.
Highlighted by 2,035 Kindle readers
Sometimes a bloke is better at that than a woman—less threatening; they’re better at diplomacy.
Highlighted by 1,704 Kindle readers
There’s a sort of constant ease, as if it’s high summer all the time inside her.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for THE POWER:

"Electrifying! Shocking! Will knock your socks off! Then you'll think twice, about everything."―Margaret Atwood

"Magnificent. I'm agog. I'm several gogs. Smart and scary and sad but true. It's a classic, in the way that it's hard to imagine it ever wasn't there."―Joss Whedon

"Alderman has written our era's Handmaid's Tale, and, like Margaret Atwood's classic, The Power is one of those essential feminist works that terrifies and illuminates, enrages and encourages....This book sparks with such electric satire that you should read it wearing insulated gloves."―Ron Charles, Washington Post

"Narratively complex, philosophically searching, and gorgeously rendered."―Lisa Shea, Elle

"Fierce and unsettling...Through immersive prose and a riveting plot, Alderman explores how power corrupts everyone: those who gain it, and those resisting its loss."―Radhika Jones, New York Times Book Review

"Richly imagined, ambitious, and propulsively written."―Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic

"Alderman's writing is beautiful, and her intelligence seems almost limitless. She also has a pitch-dark sense of humor that she wields perfectly."―Michael Schaub, NPR

"Alderman's tilted dystopia is a smartly layered place of slippery slopes and moral ambiguities, a fitting folktale for strange times."―Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly

"I was riveted by every page. Alderman's prose is immersive and, well, electric, and I felt a closed circuit humming between the book and me as I read."―Amal El-Mohtar, New York Times Book Review

"An instant classic of speculative fiction... Smart, readable and joyously achieved."
―Justine Jordan, Guardian

"Bold and disturbing...it's not just a book of the moment. The Power is a major innovation in the overlapping genres of feminist dystopia/utopia, science fiction, and speculative fiction."―Elaine Showalter, New York Review of Books

"Fans of speculative fiction (see also: Margaret Atwood and Ben Marcus) about empowered youth will be struck by Alderman's speedy and thorough inhabitation of a world just different enough from ours to jolt the imagination. Mothers, lock up your boys."―Sloane Crosley, Vanity Fair

"Alderman has the daring and good sense to eschew go-girl uplift in favor of terrifying and complex dystopia."―Boris Kachka, Vulture/ New York Magazine

"A suspenseful thrill ride filled with deep, contrasting female leads on a scaffolding of philosophical questions about how different men and women are at heart....Reminiscent of the work of Alderman's mentor Margaret Atwood, The Power is perfect for book clubs, where readers will undoubtedly debate the finer points of nature versus nurture."―Jaclyn Fulwood, Shelf Awareness

"The Power is stupendous. It's gorgeously written, endlessly exciting, fun, and frightening."
―Ayelet Waldman, author of A Really Good Day

"The Hunger Games crossed with The Handmaid's Tale."
―Cosmopolitan

"What starts out as a fantasy of female empowerment deepens and darkens into an interrogation of power itself, its uses and abuses and what it does to the people who have it... Alderman's breakout work."
―Claire Armitstead, Guardian

"Outstanding... Alderman imagines a world much like ours, with one difference: teenage girls suddenly have the ability to electrocute people. This is the perfect read if you've been itching for something to get you through to season two of The Handmaid's Tale."―Melissa Ragsdale, Bustle

"The Power is at once as streamlined as a 90-minute action film and as weirdly resonant as one of Atwood's own early fictions... Alderman has conducted a brilliant thought experiment in the nature of power itself...Turning the world inside out, she reveals how one of the greatest hallmarks of power is the chance to create a mythology around how that power was used."―John Freeman, Boston Globe

"This is a thriller that terrifies and leaves behind a lingering tingle that's part discomfort and part exhilaration. Easy to read, hard to put down, difficult to forget."―Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

"The Power is a subtly funny, lyrical and utterly subversive vision of an impossible future. As all the best visionaries do, Alderman shines a penetrating and yet merciful light on to our present and the so many cruelties in which we may be complicit."―A.L. Kennedy

"Please, please, PLEASE read Naomi Alderman's The Power. It'll crack your brain open in all the right ways. Such an important, timely book."
―Literary Death Match

"Audaciously depict[s]...the most extreme results of a movement that seeks rather than interrogates power: That if feminism has become a means for domination, it has lost its way."―Bridget Read, Vogue

"Ingenious....Deserves to be read by every woman (and, for that matter, every man)."
―Francesca Steele, The Times UK

"A page-turning thriller and timely exploration of gender roles, censorship and repressive political regimes, The Power is a must-read for today's times."―Lauren Bufferd, BookPage

"Gripping and disturbing, it pushes the reader -- even the confidently feminist reader -- to question the assumptions underlying many of the mechanisms that drive relationships between women and men."
―Harper's Bazaar UK

"Alderman's storytelling is visceral and brave; you'll stay up all night reading after a thousand deals with the clock that you'll put it down after just a few more pages. Gleeful, intelligent, clever, and unflinching, The Power is the kind of book to keep a person going."―Fiona Zublin, Ozy

"A searing critique of how power is used in a world in which a long-oppressed class can suddenly fight back."―Renay Williams, Barnes & Noble Blog

"By gleefully replacing the protocols of one gender with another, Alderman has created a thrilling narrative stuffed with provocative scenarios and thought experiments. The Power is a blast."

―Suzi Feay, Financial Times UK

"When we say that The Power is profoundly disturbing and you may well want to argue with it as you read, we mean that in a good way."
―SFX, Five Stars

About the Author

Naomi Alderman is the recipient of the 2017 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction for The Power. She is also the author of The Liars' Gospel and Disobedience, which won the Orange Prize for New Writers, has been published in ten languages, and has been made into a film by Rachel Weisz.

Alderman was selected for Granta's once-a-decade list of Best of Young British Novelists and was chosen by Margaret Atwood as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. She is the cocreator and lead writer of the bestselling smartphone audio adventure app Zombies, Run! She contributes regularly to The Guardian and presents Science Stories on BBC Radio 4. She lives in London.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little, Brown and Company; First Edition (October 10, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0316547611
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316547611
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.5 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #263,716 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,987 in Dystopian Fiction (Books)
- #3,071 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books)
- #3,255 in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.2 26,651 ratings

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Robin

Wow, very thought provoking.

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2023

Verified Purchase

I bought this book because I don't have the cable channel that shows the drama that is based on the book. I read the reviews of the show, so I know a little bit about the show, but I wanted to read the book, and I did.
The show appears to be different from the book; characters are changed, but that is all I can see.
The book is complicated, but not too much. You must read the beginning, even though it looks like a foreword from the author; it is not. It sets up the premise of the book, which is a man writing a history of today's time, but from his vantage point of 5000 years in our future.
In today's time, teen girls who have experienced menarche develop the ability to send electric shocks through their hands. Some girls have more "power" than others, and girls and women who have the power can trigger it in older women. Obviously, this changes the dynamic between males and females: teen girls, who are (in real life, today) most likely to be the victims of sexual abuse, now have the ability to at least defend themselves, and if they so choose, to punish their abusers. Girls and women no longer have to put up with catcalls and gropers on transportation and other public places.
This changes the politics of the world, too, since this is a world-wide phenomenon.
The would-be historian and his female mentor share insights into what happened 5000 years in their past, an event that totally flipped the male-female dynamic in the world. But to say more would be to give away too much, and I really want people to read it.
The language is rough: a great deal of cursing, but nothing that I haven't read before. If the f-bomb offends you, as it does some people (and that's okay), then you might want to avoid this book. I have some dear relatives who would not like this book for that reason, and they might find the social implications of "The Power" to be disturbing.
But if you like to think, you like to explore social and gender roles, and you don't mind rough language and some mild violence, I recommend this book.

7 people found this helpful

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NOYB

I hate people

Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2023

Verified Purchase

The premise is very interesting, and maybe the fact that it depressed me is because I believe in the worst in people.

But this reminds me of the suffrage argument (I might be quoting Little Women here) that men do not vote because they are good/morally superior, but because they are men. So therefore women are not required to be "good" in order to vote as well.
In the end, we're all people. And apparently all equally atrocious.

Anyway, the book is well written and an interesting conversion starter.

One person found this helpful

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JustJuliet

Holy cow! What a book!!!

Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2023

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You’ve got to read this ladies!!! I found the reactions of the male population to be accurate. This book most popular with my share library I keep at work! 😳

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Older but Wiser

Interesting and original premise

Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2023

Verified Purchase

This was a very interesting book. It was told through several point of view. At first this was a little confusing but as I kept reading it made more sense.
Very thought provoking.
Can't wait to watch the series on Netflix!

5 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Out of this world!

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2023

Verified Purchase

Great story about what happens when women get the upper hand over men--with STRENGTH comes POWER!! I found all of the intertwining stories both exciting and a little confusing sometimes... I also found the letters at the beginning confusing, but they were perfect at the end!

9 people found this helpful

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Scott K

Compelling. and not what it seems.

Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2023

Verified Purchase

While received by many as a feminist tome, it’s much more complicated than that. It’s as much a stern critique of modern feminism as it is a sort of dark feminist revenge fantasy, and asks a wide variety of questions of the reader about human power dynamics and human nature.

By the last quarter of the book, you scarcely believe what you’re reading, as the women of the world have, to put it mildly, gone off the chain.

25 people found this helpful

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J'onn J'onzz

A must read! 💞

Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2023

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Excellent book but most Definitely read before watching the series on Amazon tv. This book is An insightful exploration of "Power": it's meaning, use, and the implications in regards to gender identities and social structures. This book takes you through a range of emotions and a variety of social issues specifically misogyny, patriarchy, and matriarchy.

8 people found this helpful

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Patricia Patino

A Great Read

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2023

Verified Purchase

I enjoyed reading this book so much- I was lost in the pages. So well written. I have passed the book on to my teenage niece. It does have some adult content but I thought it was no worse than what comes on television.

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KGBeast

Frauen an die Macht - eine bessere Welt?

Reviewed in Germany on April 14, 2017

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„Eine Gesellschaft, beherrscht von Männern, wäre sicherlich friedlicher, freundlicher und fürsorgli-cher.“ Moment. Hat sich da nicht jemand vertan? (Die fiktive) Naomi Alderman ist anscheinend eine Autorin und Herausgeberin eines Verlags in einer Zeit etwa 5000 Jahre nach dem großen Kataklysmus – einer kriegerischen Auseinandersetzung, die die gesamte Welt überzogen hat und die Menschheit zurück in die Steinzeit geworfen hat. Sie hat das Manuskript eines Mannes erhalten, dessen Name interessanterweise ein Anagramm ihres eigenen Namens ist. Er hat versucht eine Geschichte der letzten zehn Jahre vor diesem Kataklysmus zu schreiben, aus einer Welt in der angeblich die Männer das beherrschende Geschlecht gewesen sind und Frauen in teils fürchterlichster Weise unterdrückt worden sind. Bis sich eines Tages die Anatomie der Frauen veränderte und sie im Bereich des Schlüsselbeins ein zusätzliches Organ entwickelten, das ein Analog zu den Elektrizität erzeugenden Organellen der Zitteraale bildete. Mit Hilfe dieses Organs können Frauen mehr oder minder starke elektrische Stöße an ihre Umgebung abgeben – entweder bei direktem Kontakt, aber auch in der Form von Lichtbögen über eine gewisse Distanz.

In Neils Geschichtsbuch beginnt nun eine Gegenbewegung gegen die Macht der Männer – und dies insbesondere erst einmal in den Ländern, in denen Frauen durch Männer am brutalsten unterdrückt worden sind. So etwa in Saudi Arabien – aber auch in einem der Hauptumschlagsplätze für versklavte Frauen – in Moldavien. Aber auch in Ländern der sogenannten Ersten Welt beginnt diese Entwicklung ihre Wirkungen zu entfalten, so dass Schulen geschlechtergetrennt werden um die Jungen vor den Mädchen zu schützen. Und da zum Beispiel in den USA die Erscheinung zunächst als eine Art temporäre Erkrankung gesehen wird, werden Frauen in verantwortlichen Positionen getestet um sie zur Not aus strategischen Positionen zu entfernen. Aber gerade eine der dafür Verantwortlichen, Margot McCleary, hat erst kurz zuvor durch ihre Tochter Jocelyn ebenfalls einen Skrein (so wird das Organ genannt) erhalten und es gelingt ihr, diesen beim Test zu verbergen und so ihren Posten zu behalten.

Gleichzeitig beginnt eine junge Frau namens Allie ihren Weg in ein neues Leben in einem Nonnen-konvent, wo sie zusammen mit einigen anderen Mädchen von ihren besorgten, sehr christlichen Eltern untergebracht worden ist. Sie beginnt plötzlich eine Stimme in ihrem Kopf zu hören, die sie anzuleiten scheint und so nimmt sie den Namen Mutter Eva an und schafft es sehr schnell, die anderen betroffenen Mädchen um sich zu sammeln – und schließlich ihre Botschaft von einer Gottheit, die ihr die Mittel zur Befreiung der Frauen an die Hand gegeben hat, über die Klostermauern hinaus zu projizieren und unter anderem Roxanne Monke, die Tochter eines britischen Gangster, zu sich zu holen.

Während dies den USA seinen Lauf nimmt und dort langsam aber sicher die Zustände verändert, reist der selbstgeschulte Reporter Tunde aus Nigeria durch die Länder der Welt um den Aufstand der Frauen in Riyadh und in Moldavien zu filmen und zu kommentieren, ein Plan, der ihn zu einem der wenigen Männer macht, die die Frauen in diesen Ländern gerne sehen, denn sie helfen ihnen, ihre Ziele schneller zu erreichen. Aber Tunde sieht nicht nur den gerechten Zorn, den diese Frauen zum Teil ihren ehemaligen Peinigern entgegen bringen, sondern auch eigentlich unschuldigen Personen – und einige Frauen verhalten sich in extremis nicht wirklich anders als ihre männlichen Gegenspieler es in vergleichbaren Situationen tun würden. Was sich zum Teil wirklich überaus verstörend liest. Genauso, wie die terroristischen Bewegungen der Männer, die sich gegen die neuen Umstände zu wehren versuchen und die sich zunächst im Internet radikalisieren, bevor sie dann ganz konkrete direkte und indirekte Kampfhandlungen einleiten – und sogar versuchen, Massenvernichtungswaffen in die Hände zu bekommen.

Die Idee einer Geschichtsschreibung lange nach einer grundlegenden Veränderung der Welt hat bereits Mary Shelley im 19. Jahrhundert aufgebracht – die auch nicht von ungefähr einen Roman mit dem Titel „The Last Man“ geschrieben hat. Hier befinden wir uns nun in einer Welt, die 5000 Jahre nach dem „Sieg“ der Frauen liegt, so dass Naomi Neil am Ende, nach dem Lesen des Manuskripts, vorschlagen kann, sein neues Geschichtsbuch unter einem weiblichen Namen zu veröffentlichen, damit das Buch nicht als nicht ernstzunehmende „Männerliteratur“ abgewertet werden kann – auch wenn sie vieles darin (z.B. männliche Soldaten oder Polizisten) für sehr an den Haaren herbeigezogen hält.

Wer sich durch die Thematik an Margaret Atwood erinnert fühlt, der wird nicht überrascht sein zu erfahren, dass diese mit der Autorin bekannt ist und – zusammen mit Ursula Le Guin – diese zum Weiterschreiben animiert hat, als sie das Projekt schon aufgeben wollte. Ironischerweise hat Frau Alderman ihre beiden Vorbilder und Helferinnen dann bei der Nominierung um einen Literaturpreis in England ausgestochen.

Ist es eine Frage des Geschlechts, wer die Macht hat? Liegt es an der Brutalität des einen Ge-schlechts, dass es historisch über das andere herrschen konnte? Oder ist die Dominanz des einen Geschlechts über das andere ein historischer Zufall und der Missbrauch der Macht einfach ein Zei-chen dafür, dass Macht diese Begleiterscheinung oft mit sich bringt – egal, wer die Macht nun inne-hat? Diese Fragen sind letztendlich nicht einwandfrei zu beantworten – genauso wenig, wie einige der Begleitfragen, die sie noch mit aufwerfen. Und so versucht dieses Buch sie auch gar nicht erst zu lösen. Wir sind als Individuen immer ein Ergebnis unserer eigenen Biographie, die natürlich mit von unseren historischen und sozialen Umständen bestimmt ist. Und wenn wir die Möglichkeit erhalten, dann werden auch wir historisch wirksam, wobei wir unseren biographischen Hintergrund mehr oder minder bewusst mit in dieses Wirken einbringen. Im Guten, wie im Schlechten – und wie wir dies beurteilen hängt auch sehr stark von unserer Biographie ab.

So gibt dieses Buch zu seinen Kernfragen über männliche und weibliche Machtausübung keine einfachen Antworten – und auch die komplizierteren sind noch nicht kompliziert genug, um die Realität darzustellen, wie eine der Hauptfiguren dieser Geschichte kurz vor Ende des Romans feststellen muss. Aber es gibt uns viele wichtige Fragen, die man beim Nachdenken über die Menschheit und ihre Zukunft nie aus dem Auge verlieren sollte. Lesenswert.

7 people found this helpful

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Thereviewer

Good but not great…

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 18, 2017

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While Naomi Alderman’s latest novel stops way short of becoming a modern classic, it’s certainly a compelling piece of pulp fiction. The story moves at a cracking pace and doesn’t fall into the trap of becoming a monotonous rant as fiction with an agenda tends to do.

Indeed, the writing has a cinematic fluidity that points to a film adaptation. Or maybe a videogame or both (one of Alderman’s many achievements is developing computer games).

As a fan of hard SF, I found the scientific premise intriguing; it took the core elements of evolution (reproduction, mutation and natural selection) with particular emphasis on the second element, showing that if natural history turned out differently –if only on the basis of a in a million anomaly –we could have been capable of delivering shock tactics in a fight (like The Power does) – quite literally. As the book suggests, at one point, our origins were aquatic and like the eel (and other sea creatures) we are electric (it’s the stuff of brainwaves…)

Yet, despite this cleverness, The Power can hardly be described as a serious example of feminist fiction because it doesn’t really make any attempt to deconstruct the status quo (in detail) from a political perspective.

A more impactful literary work would have been one which analyses the existing model of global society, component by component, astutely pointing out the flaws of the system in its many facets, using real world situations and environments that are actually relatable with believable characters (it’s fun to see super-powered protagonists taking out the bad guys (and most male characters in this tale are very bad – pretty much deserving electrocution for being so one dimensional – but this doesn’t exactly provide insight into the complexities of male-female relations)). This greater literature I allude to would have been a more ambitious project but just as significant and perhaps even more engaging, as real life misogyny has its own narrative historically and one which obviously continues in the present day.

Although The Power does feed in to a wider modern cultural reaction that’s very much in vogue and driven by a righteous anger towards sexism, it contributes little more than a novel that reads like one long revenge fantasy (with a bit of sexual fetishism thrown in through the character of Tunde. This book says as much about the author as it does about the world) with the simple (simplistic?) cliché that absolute power corrupts and power corrupts absolutely. This only reinforces a kind of anti-human sentiment that’s unoriginal, restating a pessimistic view that we can never aspire to noble values or think on a higher plane.

And as were on the subjective of speculative fiction, what is to say that if women suddenly woke up with an extraordinary new power tomorrow, they wouldn’t take a more nuanced approach to global transformation (i.e. – women creating advanced new environmentally friendly technologies where they themselves are the source of energy).

It’s true that major world changing upheavals are often characterised by violent insurrection but as the countless wars of the past and the messy wars of the present attest, would-be participants repeatedly make the mistake of forgetting that force is not a decisive political factor and what appears initially as a straightforward proposition is always much more complicated.

The novels preoccupation with physical power translating into political power is also a red herring (or is that eel?). It mostly misses the point that the basis first and foremost of inequality between men and women is economic and other forms of anti-female oppression stem primarily from this imbalance (here in the United Kingdom for example, the gender pay gap (recently re-ignited over BBC pay) remains the big issue too few people talk about –despite the way it reduces women’s options, including forcing poorer women – who are unfortunately closer to the majority than their wealthy counterparts – into depending on often bad relationships with dangerous men).

Personally, I’d love women to run the world. Taking my own experience as an example, I consider women from my own family, my friends and some of the managers I’ve worked for as responsible for the most positive turning points in my life and on average, women are better communicators and organisers, so to me it just makes sense.

In terms of leadership, I obviously wouldn’t want a reactionary like Theresa May in charge - but an idealist-revolutionary like Gal Gadot’s portrayal of the main character in the Wonder Woman movie – someone possibly super-powered (that’d be a bonus) and more essentially, someone driven by great ideas and a sense of social justice. That would make all the difference.

10 people found this helpful

nats

Engaging at the end

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 4, 2023

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Hard to follow at first. Engaging at the end

G. Oxman

Creative premise

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 6, 2023

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Liked: Roxy character, imaging this actually happening, book within a book concept

Disliked: some of the audiobook narration (esp Eve and her Voice), non Roxy characters are not that compelling, weird balance between parts that are too subtle and not subtle enough

Boingboing

Power Corrupts

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2020

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Margaret Atwood has gone on the record saying that everything that happens in her classic 'The Handmaid's Tale' in both the book and the TV series based on it has happened somewhere in the world. No matter how seemingly bizarre the treatment of the women in Gilead, women somewhere in the world have gone through it before. Naomi Alderman's book 'The Power' seems to take a very similar approach - with the key exception that girls and women the world over have not developed the ability to harness personal supplies of electricity for the domination of others. Other than that...... it pretty much seems to me that things are based in world events.

'The Power' is a gender-twisting dystopian novel in which young women discover they have immense electrical power that could be used for good, but unsurprisingly is more often harnessed for evil. As the girls pass it to older women, men are soon cast in a subjugated role. Around the world, male-dominated regimes are overthrown - women throw off their robes in Saudi and dance in the streets (before having their wicked way with passing pretty young men), countries get female presidents and armies and women rule the roost.

For anybody who thought that it might be 'nice' for women to run things for a while, for those who thought we'd all be sitting around playing kumbaya, doing crochet and chit-chatting about breastfeeding and the menopause, it's definitely time to readdress those ideas. Power corrupts, not gender. Women are every bit as evil, manipulative and scheming as the men they've taken over from. There's still exploitation, cruelty, rape as a weapon of war, genital mutilation and lots of other nasty stuff going on.

It's clever, for the most part. The story revolves around an American politician and her daughter, a murderer-turne 'religious' leader, a gangland drug smuggler, a middle European president's wife and a young Nigerian (male) journalist. The stories interweave but what I found more interesting were the little background details - the news anchors who go from dominant male and fawning pretty female sidekick to the woman wearing the 'serious' glasses and getting all the big stories whilst her pretty young male sidekick plays dumb and decorative. Things are done to men that we already know are done to women. In the new country formed from the southern parts of Moldova, men can only travel with the permission of a guardian, can't drive cars, can't go out alone. All classic Saudi Arabian treatment of women. Young men are raped and left for dead with signs that say SLUT hung around their necks. Women attack men and say he 'asked for it' or 'he shouldn't have gone out dressed like that'.

There are some weird inconsistencies. Why does Tunde, the journalist equipped with mobile phone and all modern tools of communication, still write his notes in notebooks and take photos with a film camera?

On the whole, the book, once it gets going, is pretty compelling. I must say though, that I really didn't think the epilogue letters added anything to the story. If the author had stopped with Roxy chatting to her dad, I'd have respected the book more.

24 people found this helpful

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