Charged with a rare mythic energy, Albinia’s future vision of an island archipelago where female power reigns supreme asks thrilling questions about gender, identity and belonging.
Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2022
On an unnamed archipelago off the east coast of Britain, the impossible has come to pass. Women control the civic institutions. Decide how the islands' money is spent. Run the businesses. Tend to their families. Teach the children hope for a better world.
They say that this gynotopia is Eva Levi's life's work, and that now she has disappeared, it will be destroyed. But they don't know about Cwen.
Cwen has been here longer than the civilisation she has returned to haunt. The clouds are her children, and the waves. Her name has ancient roots, reaching down into the earth and halfway around the world. The islands she inhabits have always belonged to women. And she will do anything she can to protect them.
This remarkable novel is a portrait of female power and female potential, both to shelter and to harm. What are we? Islanders or mainlanders, migrants or landowners, men or women, past or future? Or a mixture of them all? And how do we make sense of these islands we call home?
Publisher: Profile Books Ltd
ISBN: 9781788166614
Number of pages: 352
Weight: 280 g
Dimensions: 196 x 130 x 30 mm
Edition: Main
A clever, strange and wonderful book, which brims with mystery. A group of women recount their past and present stories, revealing their visions of the future. CWEN by Alice Albinia is a rare book, bold and powerful. - Xiaolu Guo
A wild, original, sure-footed feminist reimagining of the present and the past that brushes up against the mythical. Beautiful work. - Neel Mukherjee
A phenomenal novel showing us that learning to love our female selves is essential for survival. - Farhana Yamin, Environmental Lawyer, Woman’s Hour Power List: Our Planet
I loved everything about Cwen, a fable that is filled with wisdom but leavened with humour, balancing the light and dark, and expressing female fury as well as tenderness. - Ceridwen Dovey
Magical, rich and magnificent, Cwen leads us from past to the present through a cast of majestic women. Exploring and reigniting the feminine might and its unbreakable connection with Mother Nature. - Maxine Peake
A wonderful vision of Britain's deep history of myth and matriarchy - Guardian Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books 2021
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