WPF Reading Guide the Power Naomi Alderman

25 2017 WINNER THE POWER BY NAOMI ALDERMAN AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR Naomi Alderman is the author of four novels. The Power includes a number of interesting In 2006 she won the Orange Award for New Writers ‘documents’ which provide ‘proof’ of a fictional and in 2007 she was named Sunday Times Young alternative history, where women have dominated Writer of the Year, as well as being selected as one culture rather than men, for instance, the (real) of Waterstones’ 25 Writers for the archaeological finds Priest King and Future. All of her novels have been Dancing Girl, which Alderman renames broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Book at Serving Boy and Priestess Queen. Bedtime. In 2013 she was selected for By doing this, Alderman reminds the prestigious Granta Best of Young us that we can make any number of British Writers and in 2017 won the assumptions about our history to suit Women’s Prize for Fiction with our own purposes, depending on what The Power. She lives in London. we want to prove to be true and right in the way we live now. PLOT SUMMARY The presence of these ‘historical In a matriarchal society, a gushing male finds’ therefore bolsters the reality of writer writes to an influential author Alderman’s woman-dominated world about his fictional account of how the where Neil and Naomi exchange matriarchy came to be, claiming that letters, exhibiting broadly reversed 5,000 years earlier, men dominated social attitudes towards gender roles: society. The influential author, Naomi, a post-Cataclysm world where, after questions the credibility of the story. Stories emerge of a great war, we can only assume that Mother Eve women who can protect themselves with an electrical triumphed. power: they can also attack, torture and even kill using The letters at the beginning and at the end, and the it. Roxy Monke, part of a London-based crime family, authoring of the book as Neil Adam Armon’s The Power has the power. So does Allie, who escapes her abusive which seeks to establish the existence of a foster parents and becomes Mother Eve, a leader of pre-matriarchal patriarchy, serve to bookend Alderman’s young women, and Margot and her daughter Jos. Tunde, story as something that really happened – whilst Naomi, a young man, travels the world documenting women the powerful author, denies that there was ever a using their power. As tensions increase, war is brewing. patriarchy to begin with. All these devices hold a What will happen to a society where women gain a mirror up to the way that patriarchal structures are power they’ve never had before? created and reinforced historically and currently. www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk © Women’s Prize for Fiction The Women’s Prize Trust is a registered charity (charity number 1181253) THE POWER BY NAOMI ALDERMAN DISCUSSION POINTS There is a suggestion in The Power that young girls with the power can ‘wake’ the dormant power in In The Power, the electrical energy that women older women and in boys. What does this say about discover as part of their ‘skein’ (and that men also present day and historical feminism? discover within their bodies) has a physical origin In the letters between Naomi and Neil, Naomi and seems to act in a similar way to explains that women are ‘naturally’ aggressive to orgasm – physically generated, protect their children. Is this a but experienced as a wider, refreshing take on the role of intense energy. motherhood or simply another Locating power in the body is reductive assumption based on interesting from the point of biology? What are the different view of present day and historical perspectives on motherhood feminism, which has grappled with put forward through orphan the identity of women in relation Allie who reinvents herself as to their biology, either valuing or ‘Mother Eve’ and mother and denying its importance. daughter Margot and Jos? How does Alderman’s treatment of the origin of power in the body NEXT STEPS relate to and subvert these ideas? Inspired by Allie/Mother Eve’s And how does ‘the power’ relate retelling of biblical texts to to orgasm and sexual power? suit her own purposes, find Could it be said that women’s a religious story from any sexual power is ultimately what tradition and rewrite it from brings about the Cataclysm? How the perspective of a female does this idea relate to religious character you feel might be texts, such as Eve in the Garden misrepresented within it (or not of Eden? included at all). What does she want to say about her treatment in the story? NAOMI ALDERMAN’S THE POWER GRABS YOU BY THE GUTS AND LAUNCHES YOU INTO Alternatively, imagine that patriarchy ‘won’ the war: A BRILLIANTLY IMAGINED FUTURE how might the men’s rights activists groups write about Roxy Monke and Mother Eve? Write a tabloid TESSA ROSS, article, complete with a suitably worded headline CHAIR OF JUDGES 2017 and byline, describing either of them at trial or their ‘bad deeds’. QUESTIONS Roxy Monke is a brilliantly rounded character. How do Jos and Ryan’s experiences represent Consider writing a piece of crime fiction featuring queerness and non-gender normativity? Ryan’s Roxy, perhaps in role as a police detective after non-normativity is framed in a physical narrative giving up a life of crime. How might she differ or (a chromosomal irregularity) and Jos is sent to a compare to other fictional female detectives? camp to be able to ‘control’ her power. Discuss Study women detectives in a range of crime fiction the implications of Jos and Ryan’s experiences with to inform your writing, starting with Denise Mina’s regard to gender identity politics. Alex Morrow or Tana French’s Antoinette Conway. BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS DISOBEDIENCE BY NAOMI ALDERMAN THE HANDMAID’S TALE BY MARGARET ATWOOD www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk © Women’s Prize for Fiction The Women’s Prize Trust is a registered charity (charity number 1181253).

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