How would the world look if girls were stronger than boys? Naomi Alderman's extraordinary new novel reveals a world where power lies in new hands. In Naomi Alderman's new world sources of control have shifted. Children play differently, violence is enacted in surprising new ways and the link between physical strength, status, sex and power is made plain. For, in The Power, Naomi Alderman's disturbing, brilliantly original new novel, girls fight boys in the playground and win, pretty young women are not personal assistants but security guards. Women are stronger than men and the world has changed, utterly.