The Future

by Naomi Alderman

Book Overview

A Most Anticipated Book of Fall at Associated Press, Booklist, Chicago Tribune, Goodreads, Good Housekeeping, Literary Hub, Time, The Week, and W Magazine

The bestselling, award-winning author of The Power delivers a dazzling tour de force where a handful of friends plot a daring heist to save the world from the tech giants whose greed threatens life as we know...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 166802568X
• ISBN13: 9781668025680
• Release Date: November 2023
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Original, Timely, and Insightful

I truly enjoyed The Future. I found it to be both original and timely. I appreciated the insightful commentary sprinkled throughout the story. It summarizes our mindlessly numb drift toward disintegration and collapse and illustrates the successful ways technology has divided us under the illusion of connection. In particular, I enjoyed the backstory of Martha, who grew up in a doomsday cult but now serves as the trusted personal assistant of a Musk or Bezos-type billionaire. She recalls being abandoned by her father deep in the woods, left to fend for herself and find her way home as a test of faith and preparation. She succeeds on both counts and kills a bear in the process. In killing the bear, she recalled the following lesson taught by her father: “Enoch had taught her skills of silent watching. ‘This is what they f#%k up for themselves with television, Martha.’ he’d told her. ‘This is what they destroy. Humans were made for watching. We can read God’s book in the world, but we must learn to be silent and still. Things on television come too quick, too many, and too obvious. We were made to stare at the embers of a dying fire for hours. To watch an animal. To look at how the water runs down a hillside until we can see the way to change the river’s course with one day’s work. Don’t make your mind impatient - make it still.’” The sentiment in this paragraph touches the book's point (for me). The question is whether or not we have gone too far. Do we know what we’ve lost? Has technology removed us from ourselves, our true nature, such that we cannot be saved from the destructive path we have created? The Future has answers to these questions, and we believe there remains hope for us all. This novel is worth reading, with plenty of thoughts and ideas worth pondering.