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The Power cover art

The Power

By: Naomi Alderman
Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh, Naomi Alderman, Thomas Judd, Emma Fenney, Phil Nightingale
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Publisher's Summary

2017 Winner of the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction

'She throws her head back and pushes her chest forward and lets go a huge blast right into the centre of his body. The rivulets and streams of red scarring run across his chest and up around his throat. She'd put her hand on his heart and stopped him dead.'

Suddenly - tomorrow or the day after - girls find that with a flick of their fingers, they can inflict agonizing pain and even death.

With this single twist, the four lives at the heart of Naomi Alderman's extraordinary, visceral novel are utterly transformed, and we look at the world in an entirely new light. What if the power to hurt were in women's hands?

©2016 Naomi Alderman (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

Critic Reviews

"Electrifying! Shocking! Will knock your socks off! Then you'll think twice, about everything." (Margaret Atwood)
" 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)
"Alderman is a fluent and powerful writer." ( Sunday Times)

What listeners say about The Power

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Fantastic thought experiment!

Great book, very simple concept well executed. The book takes a simple and obvious concept; that the physical power and strength men have that allows them to dominate women is the reason they have dominated governments, militaries and religion through the ages. It then imagines a future where women have the power to hurt and dominate men in the same way and how that would transform society. This future is not a feminist ideal of equality and peace but rather a dystopia of inequality and violence between the genders which is horrifying for its cruelty and injustice but much more viscerally for the way it holds up a mirror to the horrors of our current world.
Oh and the voice performances on the audiobook are entertaining and energetic.

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Challenging but necessary read!

It wasn’t alway easy content but it’s a story that needs telling, I found it very compelling!

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Gripping and fantastically insightful.

What a unique story!
There is a bit of a fantasy element to this story, but if you strip it all back, it's a story about the human condition. A clever novel way to draw attention to the suffering of women through time. The performance was good! So many accents!

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Brilliant

Honestly just so good! The writing is wonderful, the characters are believable and the voice performances are great. Made me feel completely electric.

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Must read for everyone with an wothout a gender

Naomi Alderman's gender swapped novel of power dynamics lights-up vital new ideas of gender equality.

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I have no words. You must read/hear this.

I have no words. You must read/hear this. I don't know if you'll thank me for it or not, but just do it.

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wow!

An epic scale speculative fiction that is thrilling to read. Absolutely loved this book.
I came for the what-if-I-could-zap-that-scary-guy-harrasing-me-on-the-way-home, and then stayed, watching open mouthed as the world was thrown into chaos and the best and worst of people drawn out as the sky was falling. I loved the different perspectives, and especially the sting of the last chapter.

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Compelling

This is a gripping listen/read. Naomi Alderman, co-creator and head writer of Zombies, Run!, has written a speculative fiction page-turner about an alternative reality in which women have developed the power to emit electric shocks from their hands. All of a sudden, women are the physically dominant sex, and this changes everything. At first, my reaction was "Go girls!" - but there are dark twists galore. Highly recommended.

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Clever and thought provoking

This book gave an excellent look at how power imbalances can affect society. Well written, and definitely makes you think. Also enjoyable to read!

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Get this book people!

This was an amazing listen. The narrator (man one was fantastic. Nailing the accents and really giving it a sense of people and place.

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