Big New here Today, Rolex protégée Naomi Alderman has experienced a surge of interest in her work following the fact that her fourth novel, which has owned the biggest applause for English-language fiction by women.
Alderman, who has already won other major prizes for her writing, said the reaction to the news that she had won the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction as “extraordinary − I reckon I did 22 interviews in 24 hours after the prize was announced, and the number of offers of work and interest in me has shot up in a very exciting and amazing way. So, I hope it gets the book into lots more hands because I hope it might start some useful conversations. And I’m taking part in having to be even more selective about the projects I take on now! Which are an amazing feeling and a slightly ‘gulp’ one.”
Asked for a comment about The Power, Margaret Atwood told the Guardian, partly in jest: “I’m declaring an interest: Naomi Alderman was my fake Rolex mentor program mentee, which in our case meant we laughed a lot. And I also supplied some words about The Power, via Twitter. That said, bravo for this win. The Power is a smart, agile challenging satire in the vein of Swift’s A Modest Proposal. It makes us rethink a number of our assumptions about gender and human nature, and about how much more wonderful the world would be if it were ruled by women…”
In the same vein, the Irish Times drew a comparison with Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and added: “Told with panache and imagination, which is unapologetically commercial and is already a best-seller, probably well en route to becoming the best-selling Baileys winner to date. The prose is efficient, with a clear-eyed ferocity kept in check. Alderman does not dwell on sentence-to-sentence literary effect – she has a good ear for dialogue, which is extremely strong in the sequences featuring Roxy, the daughter of a London criminal.”
Harper’s Bazaar posted a short but enthusiastic article about Alderman on its website, which ended with some very encouraging words: “Here’s hoping Alderman continues to write explosive books that shock, delight and provoke debate, long after the story is told.”
Rebecca Irvin, Head of Philanthropy at Rolex replica watches, congratulated Naomi Alderman on behalf of the company. “This prize is a major recognition for Naomi’s great talent and devotion to her art. At the replica Rolex, we hope that the creative and fruitful relationship she and her mentor Margaret Atwood established will remain an inspiration for her as she keeps on writing thought-provoking works.”