NEW YORK – Naomi Alderman is a “what if” writer, as in, “What if women could discharge electricity via their fingers,” the assumption of her best-selling novel “The Power?”
In her forthcoming book, plainly and verbosely titled “The Future,” she imagines a group of rogues, including an upset spouse as well as a deposed executive, ousting Silicon Valley’s masters and running the tech world.
“I’ve seen the emergence of these companies that began as people tinkering on the internet but now look at them.” “How did we get to this point?” the British author asked recently over the phone. “Many of them appear to be using their businesses for nefarious purposes, such as destabilizing democracies as well as radicalizing people in different ways.” So I was wondering if there was a method for them to work better together.”
The novel was announced by Simon & Schuster on Tuesday, and it is described as a blend of “intelligence and storytelling, marrying white-knuckle storytelling propulsion with a cognitively dazzling critique of the world we have created, in which a few billionaires profit from the lives of many and willfully lead us to our demise.”
Alderman, 48, is also renowned for his books “The Liars’ Gospel” as well as “Disobedience,” which was adapted into a film starring Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams. After a lengthy delay caused in part by the pandemic and the exit of actors Leslie Mann and Tim Robbins, an Amazon Prime Video series based on “The Power” is set to premiere next year. Toni Collette and Josh Charles took their place.
Her own writing was also hampered by the pandemic. Alderman had already been working on a novel, tentatively titled “The Survivals,” about tech billionaires attempting to flee a deadly plague, but it was changed after a real one broke out in early 2020. The tech leaders persist, but the pandemic has decentralized and the “book definitely got less dark,” owing to Alderman’s desire to “find some light.”
“The Future” is her first novel since “The Power,” which was published in 2016 and was authored under Margaret Atwood’s mentorship. Alderman’s books have voiced a different vision than Atwood’s, who has envisioned the worst in “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Oryx and Crake,” among other works.
“Margaret has already covered how bad it can get,” Alderman says. “We don’t need a lesser author doing that.” “I’m interested in the more radical ideas regarding how we can improve things and what paths we can take.”
