Baileys prize goes to 'classic of the future' by Naomi Alderman

The Power, a dystopian novel about a future where women can kill men with a touch, acclaimed by judges of the women’s fiction award for ‘urgency and resonance’

Naomi Alderman’s The Power has become the first science fiction novel to scoop the Baileys prize for women’s fiction. The thriller, set in a dystopian future where women and girls can kill men with a single touch, was the favourite on a shortlist that included former winner Linda Grant and Man Booker-shortlisted Madeleine Thien.

The chair of judges, film and TV producer Tessa Ross, said that the book was a clear winner of the £30,000 prize, despite at times passionate debate among the judges. “This prize celebrates great writing and great ideas and The Power had that, but it also had urgency and resonance,” she said. The judges, she added, had been impressed by Alderman’s handling of the big issues that affect all humanity, from greed to power, and predicted the novel would be “a classic of the future”.

The novel has been described as feminist science fiction, and asks the question what is power: who has it, how do you get it, and what does it do when you have it? And, when you have power, how long before power corrupts you? It follows four main characters: Roxy, the daughter of a London crime lord; Tunde, a journalism student in Lagos; Allie, from the southern states of the US and Margo, a low-level politician. They all feature in a combination of page-turning thriller and thought experiment that attacks some of the biggest issues of our times, including religion, gender politics and censorship.

Ross described the book as “bold, accessible and beautifully written”. Despite the present-day political echoes within The Power, she said its political content was not discussed by the panel, which also included broadcaster Katie Derham, novelist Aminatta Forna, comedian Sara Pascoe and the co-founder of The Pool website, Sam Baker. “But we did discuss the relevance of the book to the world today,” she added. “It was a conversation about what great art does and why it matters now.”

It is not the first time Alderman has stood on the winning podium at the women’s prize for fiction: 10 years ago, the games writer and former gaming columnist for the Guardian, won the 2006 Orange award for new writers with her debut, Disobedience. The Power looks set to be a popular win. On publication, it was greeted with rave reviews, including being hailed as an “instant classic of speculative fiction” in the Guardian and “insightful, thrilling, funny” by the Daily Telegraph.

The novel was nearly ditched by the 42-year-old writer. In an interview with the Guardian, she said that she had been 200,000 words into another book when she decided it was not working and abandoned it to start The Power.

That the book – Alderman’s fourth – has been likened to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is no coincidence. Atwood “adopted” the north London author in a mentoring scheme for young writers, and The Power is dedicated to her and her husband Graeme Gibson, “who have shown me wonders”. Like The Handmaid’s Tale, the acclaimed adaptation of which is currently being screened on Channel 4, The Power seems destined, also, to make it to the small screen in the not too distant future. Atwood had some input into Alderman’s winning novel: she suggested the idea for the convent, where the newly empowered young women go for sanctuary as they are hunted down by a vengeful male establishment.

Alderman’s win should attract useful attention for the prize, which has been looking for new sponsors after drinks brand Baileys announced it was pulling out. The win will also put paid to recurrent accusations that writing by women is mired in the “domestic”.

Pointing to the variety of the shortlist – which ranged from Linda Grant’s The Dark Circle, set in 1950s England, to the 1980s Nigerian setting of Ayòbámi Adébáyò’s debut Stay With Me – Ross said: “There is no one theme that anyone writes about on this list. That is what is wonderful about it. It is thrilling to see [that] women’s writing is no ‘one thing’.”

Asked if the fact that women’s writing broke past literary stereotypes and took them to the top of prize shortlists across all genres meant that there was no longer a need for a prize aimed solely at one gender, she said: “That question has to be asked, but really? Enough. It is a brilliant thing to be able to celebrate women’s writing. These women are writing necessary and great books.”

Contributor

Danuta Kean

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
Baileys prize winner Naomi Alderman on fame, Trump and Wonder Woman
Her bold tale The Power, set in a world where women can electrocute men at will, has won the prestigious prize. Alderman talks about the book’s impact, crying at Wonder Woman and why female solidarity is more vital than running water

Alex Clark

08, Jun, 2017 @4:53 PM

Article image
Baileys women's prize 2017 longlist sees established names eclipse debuts
Margaret Atwood, Annie Proulx and Rose Tremain lead 16 finalists for £30,000 award, only three of whom are first-time novelists

Danuta Kean

08, Mar, 2017 @12:01 AM

Article image
Baileys drops women's prize for fiction sponsorship
Drinks brand, which has supported the award since 2014, says it is refocusing marketing strategy on non-English speaking countries

Danuta Kean

30, Jan, 2017 @12:35 PM

Article image
Anne Enright declared favourite to win Baileys prize
The Green Road calculated as 5/2 bet to take prestigious women’s prize for fiction

Alison Flood

03, Jun, 2016 @2:52 PM

Article image
'Sweary Lady' Lisa McInerney makes Baileys prize shortlist with debut novel
The Glorious Heresies, which grew out of a blog about life on an Irish council estate, is nominated alongside books by Anne Enright and Hanya Yanagihara

Alison Flood

11, Apr, 2016 @6:15 PM

Article image
Baileys prize goes to The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney
Irish black comedy gets ‘110% support’ from jury led by Apprentice star Margaret Mountford to win £30,000 award for fiction by women

Alison Flood

08, Jun, 2016 @6:23 PM

Article image
Sci-fi thriller The Power picked for Baileys prize shortlist
Judges praise Naomi Alderman’s novel in which women are able to kill men with a single touch, with debut author Ayòbámi Adébáyò also in the running

Mark Brown Arts correspondent

03, Apr, 2017 @6:16 PM

Article image
The Future by Naomi Alderman review – an apocalyptic techno-thriller
An AI program predicts the end of the world in this wobbly rollercoaster ride from the author of The Power

Adam Roberts

08, Nov, 2023 @9:00 AM

Article image
New Doctor Who regenerated in fiction by Juno Dawson and Naomi Alderman
The 13th Doctor, as played on BBC One by Jodie Whittaker, will also feature in a novel and a short story by the two acclaimed authors

Alison Flood

11, May, 2018 @12:23 PM

Article image
The Future by Naomi Alderman review – survival of the fittest
Wisecracks, gadgets and cartoonish violence are to the fore in this fast-paced novel about three tech tycoons facing Armageddon

Stephanie Merritt

27, Nov, 2023 @9:00 AM