The Future

Written by Naomi Alderman

Narrated by Naomi Alderman, Guinevere Turner, Natalie Naudus and 5 more

A Most Anticipated Book of Fall at Associated Press, Booklist, Chicago Tribune, Goodreads, Good Housekeeping, Literary Hub, Time, The Week, and W Magazine

The bestselling, award-winning author of The Power delivers a dazzling tour de force where a handful of friends plot a daring heist to save the world from the tech giants whose greed threatens life as we know it.

When Martha Einkorn fled her father’s isolated compound in Oregon, she never expected to find herself working for a powerful social media mogul hell-bent on controlling everything. Now, she’s surrounded by mega-rich companies designing private weather, predictive analytics, and covert weaponry, while spouting technological prophecy. Martha may have left the cult, but if the apocalyptic warnings in her father’s fox and rabbit sermon—once a parable to her—are starting to come true, how much future is actually left?

Across the world, in a mall in Singapore, Lai Zhen, an internet-famous survivalist, flees from an assassin. She’s cornered, desperate and—worst of all—might die without ever knowing what's going on. Suddenly, a remarkable piece of software appears on her phone telling her exactly how to escape. Who made it? What is it really for? And if those behind it can save her from danger, what do they want from her, and what else do they know about the future?

Martha and Zhen’s worlds are about to collide. An explosive chain of events is set in motion. While a few billionaires assured of their own safety lead the world to destruction, Martha’s relentless drive and Zhen’s insatiable curiosity could lead to something beautiful or the cataclysmic end of civilization.

By turns thrilling, hilarious, tender, and always piercingly brilliant, The Future unfolds at a breakneck speed, highlighting how power corrupts the few who have it and what it means to stand up to them. The future is coming. The Future is here.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Nov 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9781797163635

Naomi Alderman

Naomi Alderman is the bestselling author of The Power, which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and was chosen as a book of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and was recommended as a book of the year by both Barack Obama and Bill Gates. As a novelist, Alderman has been mentored by Margaret Atwood via the Rolex Arts Initiative, she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and her work has been translated into more than thirty-five languages. As a video games designer, she was lead writer on the groundbreaking alternate reality game Perplex City, and is cocreator of the award-winning smartphone exercise adventure game Zombies, Run!, which has more than 10 million players. She is professor of creative writing at Bath Spa University. She lives in London.

Reviews for The Future

[Quinn Lathrop · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent pace and gripping. I couldn’t put it down. I haven’t been that hooked by a novel in a long time. Great read!

[wkwebb · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fast moving plot is entirely unpredictable. A hugely entertaining read.

[Brenda McFarlane · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed the narrators and the story. Thoroughly enjoyable, well written and smart.

[April Frye · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was scarily relevant to the current state of the world. I like to believe we will do better here without having to see an apocalypse before making changes.

[Morryah McCurdy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent and eerily foreseeable, the author was able to explain high level/technical things with ease and understandability. I enjoyed the story, the twists, and the writing style. Look forward to reading more by this author

[Megan Edelman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Sensational book. Such wise commentary on where we are headed as a civilization. Very well written and performed

[MLJS-piano · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Go Naomi, go, go ,go! I will read anything you write.
- Oooh. Owie. Yikes. Yeesh. This story cuts close to the modern bone. Read it if you dare. You'll never see our society the same. You might sign out of Amazon forever ... or you might not. I hope we all get the message! We are all in this precarious boat TOGETHER.

[Celina Register · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Really great story that leaves one questions life and wondering where things are going.
One downfall is that the story jumps around in time too much. It's hard to orient 'when' a chapter is occurring.

[Jane ALTEMEN · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It kept me Intrigued by the unique and Creative realism.

[Jen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

At first I loved it, then lulled into liking it, then finished and my emotional response was wtf? Idk if I like it at all. But the book lingered in my mind and made me think about where we are today and the fantasy of how to fix it-will not spoiler for future readers! I may actually re-listen. I wish this app had a book club discussion group so I could have a conversation about it! Narrators did a good job not too emotional not too boring. The different readers helped compartmentalize the book to express style

[Charles Jones · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It started off pretty interesting with the end of the world starting and the rich people running away, and this the novel just died. It got so boring and nothing was going on and it was trying to weave things around too many characters. I got 1/2 way through and just couldn't keep going.

[Andre Gott · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Elon Musk Revenge porn: Imagine a world where we can blame all of our current evils on Twitter and Apple…leaving big Pharma, capitalism, military complex, and the oil industry faultless and blameless.

Checks all the DEI boxes in an attempt to take down the white patriarchy and leave them stranded on a deserted island.