The Power * Naomi Alderman

Teenage girls across the globe suddenly develop a physical mutation that allows them to generate lethal electrical shocks from their bodies, triggering a massive, volatile inversion of global politics, religion, and gender dynamics.

The Story: Written by prominent British novelist, game designer, and Margaret Atwood protégé Naomi Alderman, this breathtaking masterpiece transforms traditional speculative fiction into an exceptionally sharp, strategy-first societal workspace. The narrative shatters the standard, low-friction balance of modern civilization. Instead, Alderman establishes an honest, emotionally dense framework that documents how the global power structure permanently fractures when women become the physically dominant gender across strict historical timelines. The plot guides fiction and sci-fi enthusiasts through a fast-paced, multi-layered puzzle told through four main alternating perspectives. First, Roxy is the resilient daughter of a London mob boss who witnesses her newfound energy become a valuable asset in the family's underworld operations. Second, Tunde is a young, ambitious journalist in Nigeria who tracks the emerging global revolution across changing geographical boundaries. Third, Margot is a rising American politician who recognizes the electrical phenomenon as a tactical tool to reshape her legislative platform. Fourth, Allie is a traumatized foster child who transforms her power into a radical spiritual movement, building a massive sanctuary of underground believers. An active psychological inquiry into how absolute authority corrupts human behavior. As the global patriarchal architecture collapses, the new matriarchal regime enforces strict deadlines, militarized crackdowns, and structural overhauls that mirror the worst excesses of history. 

Perfect For: Devotees of traditional, slow-burn dystopian epics and thought-provoking feminist sci-fi like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Naomi Mitchison’s Solution Three, or the works of Ursula K. Le Guin; readers who enjoy complex ensemble casts, shifting narrators, and political thrillers; and book collectors archiving award-winning modern literature.

First Published 2016 by Viking in Great Britain. This stated First North American Edition October 2017 by Little, Brown and Company