Eleven Percent

By Maren Uthaug

An inverse The Handmaid's Tale that asks: What if women took over the world?

"A pretty wild book "--Margaret E. Atwood, tweet

"Emotionally enthralling and intellectually stimulating." --Booklist

It is the New Time, a time not so different from our own except that the men are gone. All but eleven percent of them, that is, the minimum required to avoid inbreeding. But they are safely under lock and key in "spa" centers for women's pleasure (trained by amazons to fulfill all desires) and procreation. A few women protest that the males should be treated better - more space, better food, but all agree that testosterone cannot be allowed to roam free. The old patriarchal cities are crumbling, becoming overgrown; people now live in "round communities." But if you prefer the slum, that's okay too. Religion has survived, sort of: women priestesses speak in tongues, inspired by snake venom, as apples are passed around to the congregation. But all social engineering has its costs...

Four different lives intersect: Medea, a tiny, long-haired witch and snake whisperer; Wicca, a young priestess who excelled at the "self-pleasuring" curriculum in school and has lost her pregnant lover; Eva, a doctor working in a spa center, and Silence, who lives in an almost abandoned convent. Each will discover the cracks in this women's paradise.

Provocative, irreverent, and completely riveting, Eleven Percent--a #1 bestseller in Denmark--is the first novel to appear in English by celebrated Danish author Maren Uthaug.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250329647
• ISBN13: 9781250329646
• Release Date: April 2025
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Not my cup of tea

I was intrigued by the concept but sadly I did not really like any of the characters and it was a really bizarre world, disgusting at times (e.g. "magical" menstrual blood?) but I wanted to know more so I kept at it. of the four women's points of view, I think I liked Silence and Medea best though it was interesting to see how the pasts of all four twisted together to form the oddness of the present which was very modern at times (the centers where they kept the few men and how they got rid of cancer and how it is normal to live past 150), yet also quite medieval (with the Christian priests versus witches). Wicca and Eva's sections had good parts but really dwelt with too much graphic body parts (and the society is also very backwards in treating trans people) So all in all this is an odd book that some people might really connect with but I found it only okay. Despite the story, the narrator did a good job of bringing the characters to life in this very unique society. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to listen to this audiobook, even if it is not my cup of tea.