The Women Could Fly
The must read dark, magical - and timely - critically acclaimed dystopian novel
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3.8 • 6 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
Reminiscent of the works of Margaret Atwood, Deborah Harkness, and Octavia E. Butler, The Women Could Fly is a queer feminist speculative novel that speaks to our times – a piercing dystopian tale, set in a world in which magic is real and single women are closely monitored in case they are shown to be witches . . .
Josephine Thomas has heard every conceivable theory about her mother's disappearance. That she was kidnapped. Murdered. That she took on a new identity to start a new family. That she was a witch. This is the most worrying charge because in a world where witches are real, peculiar behaviour raises suspicions and a woman - especially a Black woman - can find herself on trial for witchcraft.
Finally ready to let go of the past, Jo’s future is in doubt. The State mandates that all women marry by the age of 30 - or forfeit their autonomy by registering to be monitored. At 28, Jo is ambivalent about marriage, feeling she has never understood her mother more. When offered the opportunity to honour one last request from her mother's will, Jo leaves her regular life to feel connected to her one last time.
'For fans of Margaret Atwood' - Elle
'Thoughtful...wry, magical' - Guardian
'Brimming with wonder' - Raven Leilani, author of Luster
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Giddings (Lakewood) pulls off a dynamite story of a Black woman's resistance in an oppressive dystopia. Jo Thomas's mother, Tiana, has been declared dead after having been missing for 14 years. At 28, the age at which all women must marry or register with the Bureau of Witchcraft, Jo works at the Museum of Cursed Art and is in love with her white best friend, Angie. Tiana taught Jo as a girl that magic wasn't real, but rather a myth to enable oppressions of women and non-cisgender people. Jo is set to inherit a large sum from Tiana on the condition that she agrees to visit an island in Lake Superior, which, according to a story Tiana once told her, only appears once every seven years. The instructions remind her of a story her mother told her as a child, about an island with a treasure. Though Jo doesn't want to leave her sometimes-boyfriend Preston, or her job and Angie, she complies, and upon returning is promptly imprisoned for suspected witchcraft. When Preston promises to take custody of Jo, as required by law, the two enter a tender phase of their relationship. But after the island's secrets leak into the real world, Jo is imprisoned again. Giddings ingeniously blends her harrowing parable of an all-powerful patriarchy with insights into racial imbalances, such as a scene in which Jo and Angie are pulled over by the cops ("I wanted the ease of feeling protected and beautiful enough to try to make a joke, to not have my hands on the dashboard, to not text someone pulled over by cops, please call in 15 minutes if you don't hear from me again"). This is brilliant.
