There are some quite disturbing scenes in the novel with violence enacted against both men and women.

These different characters’ stories come together in a dramatic and fascinating way. This at first seems like it will be the seed state for the new female order of the world, but it soon experiences heavy conflict in the chaotic tussle for power. Much of the action of the novel takes place in an Eastern European country ruled by a queen named Tatiana. The story concentrates on several diverse characters including an abused foster child who reinvents herself as Mother Eve to lead a religious following, the daughter of an English gangster who takes control of a lucrative drug trafficking business, a Nigerian man who discovers a flair for journalism in recording the women’s rise to power and a female US politician and her conflicted daughter. Soon the battle for dominance leads to the equally horrifying psychological, physical and sexual subjugation of men just as has been the case for women over the course of history. But just because women rise to power doesn’t mean that this is a utopia. As more and more women find this strength awakening within them, control at all levels of society shifts to favour women. They can train themselves to use this electricity as a weapon. The novel begins with groups of adolescent girls suddenly finding they possess special powers to generate and control powerful electric currents. So reading Naomi Alderman’s deeply imaginative novel “The Power” which charts ten years of a matriarchy’s rise to global power is such a thrilling experience. Standing for women’s equality is something I feel really strongly about.

The power alderman novel