NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 Novelist Naomi Alderman is a 鈥渨hat if鈥 kind of writer, as in: What if women were able to release electricity through their fingers, the premise of her acclaimed bestseller 鈥淭he Power "?
For her upcoming book, simply and descriptively titled 鈥淭he Future," she imagined a handful of rogues 鈥 including an unhappy spouse and a deposed executive 鈥 overthrowing the masters of Silicon Valley and running the tech world themselves.
鈥淚've seen the rise of these companies that started off with people tooling around on the internet and now look at them. How have we gotten to this point,鈥 the British author said in a recent telephone interview. 鈥淎 lot of them seem be using their companies for nefarious purposes, like destabilizing democracies and radicalizing people in all sorts of directions. So I was thinking about whether there was a way for them to work better.鈥
Simon & Schuster announced the novel Tuesday, calling it a blend of 鈥渋ntelligence and storytelling, marrying white-knuckle narrative propulsion with an intellectually dazzling critique of the world we have made, in which a few billionaires profit on the lives of many and lead us willingly to our doom.鈥
鈥淭he Future鈥 is scheduled for publication in fall 2023.
Alderman, 48, is also known for 鈥淭he Liars' Gospel鈥 and 鈥淒isobedience," adapted into An Amazon Prime Video series based on 鈥淭he Power" is expected next year after an extended delay caused in part by the pandemic and by the departure of actors Leslie Mann and Tim Robbins. They were replaced by Toni Collette and Josh Charles.
The pandemic also disrupted her own writing. Alderman had been working on a novel 鈥 tentatively called 鈥淭he Survivals鈥 鈥 about tech billionaires fleeing from a deadly plague but altered it after a real one spread early in 2020. The tech leaders remain, but the pandemic has been decentralized and the 鈥渂ook definitely got less dark,鈥 mostly because Alderman wanted 鈥渢o find some hope," she explained.
鈥淭he Future鈥 is her first novel since 鈥淭he Power,鈥 published in 2016 and written Alderman's books have expressed a kind of alternative vision to that of Atwood, who has imagined the worst in 鈥淭he Handmaid's Tale鈥 and 鈥淥ryx and Crake" among others.
鈥淢argaret has very much covered how bad it can get, so we don't need a lesser writer doing that,鈥 Alderman says. 鈥淚'm interested in the most radical ideas about how we can make things better, and what are the avenues we can pursue.鈥
