Fourth Estate lands new novel from Women's Prize-winning Alderman

Fourth Estate has landed the new novel from Women’s Prize-winning author Naomi Alderman. 

David Roth-Ey, executive publisher, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to The Future from Veronique Baxter of David Higham Associates. It will publish on 7th November.  

Finnish rights sold to Gummerus; French to Gallimard; German to Heyne; Hungarian to 21. Szazad Kiado; Italian to Feltrinelli; Japanese to Kawade Shobo Shinsha; Korean to Minumsa; Polish to Marginesy; Spanish to Roca; Turkish to Penguen Kitap. 

The Future is set in a dystopian near-future, where a few tech billionaires are leading the world to destruction, while safeguarding their own survival with secret bunkers. The synopsis says: “When a handful of friends – the daughter of a cult leader, the concerned wife of a dangerous c.e.o. and an internet-famous survivalist – hatch a plan to overthrow the billionaires’ supremacy, it could be the greatest heist ever undertaken…or it could mean the end of the world. The Future is a white-knuckle tour de force and dazzling exploration of the world we have made and where we are going.” 

Alderman said: “The Future is a novel which has almost been dictated to me by the roiling urgency of the world today – the opportunity and the despair, the great hopes and the terrible fears. I’ve always believed that the novel can ‘bring the news’. So that’s what I’m hoping to do: to sketch a way forward from where we are now. With explosions. And drone swarms. And a love story.” 

Roth-Ey added: “Naomi has once again brought her fierce intellect and unparalleled storytelling powers to bear in a hugely compelling novel that not only looks at where humanity is headed but how we came to be. The Future is bold, thrilling, thought-provoking, sublime.”