A historical novel - written 5000 years in the future.

We meet Roxy, a tough London girl from an underworld family; Tunde, a young Nigerian man who is studying to be a photo-journalist; Allie, a mixed-race girl from Jacksonville whose foster parents use their religion to hide some very dark practices; Margot, an ambitious New England politician and her troubled daughter, Jocelyn.

Their world is much like ours until The Day Of The Girls.

Teenage girls now find they have an electrical power coursing through them - they can harm at will, cause excruciating pain and even death.

"As it is written: 'She cuppeth the lightning in her hand. She commandeth it to strike.'"

This is the power. And it changes everything.

Episode 1:
Roxy is 14 years old - she is one of the first. In Lagos, Tunde witnesses the event which will soon become known as The Day Of The Girls.

The author, Naomi Alderman, won the Orange Award for New Writers in 2006 and in 2007 she was named Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year, as well as being selected as one of Waterstones' 25 Writers for the Future. In 2012 and 2013 she was mentored by Margaret Atwood as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Also in 2013, she was selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Writers. The Power is her fourth novel. Naomi lives in London.

Written by Naomi Alderman
Reader: Adjoa Andoh
Abridger: Jeremy Osborne
Producer: Rosalynd Ward
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4. Show less