Feminist novelist Naomi Alderman has been put on the longlist for this year's Orwell Book Prize for political writing, with her work of fiction The Power. I have not read the book and have no intention of doing so. The synopsis from the book's inside cover says it all:
'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?
