Shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2018
A frighteningly believable dystopian vision, Jennie Melamed’s debut imagines a world where resources are scarce, lives short and women’s fertility a valuable commodity.
She can’t see the point of the repetitiveness of it all, people living to create more people and then dying when they’re useless, to make room for even more people
On a small isolated island, there's a community that lives by its own rules. Boys grow up knowing they will one day take charge, while girls know they will be married and pregnant within moments of hitting womanhood.
But before that time comes, a ritual offers children an exhilarating reprieve. Every summer they are turned out onto their doorsteps, to roam the island, sleep on the beach and build camps in trees. To be free.
At the end of one of such summer, one of the younger girls sees something she was never supposed to see. And she returns home with a truth that could bring their island world to its knees.
Echoing the hauntingly entrancing quality of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Gather the Daughters spins a tail of women’s lives and bodies subsumed by a repressive, abusive social order. Intertwining the perspectives of four teenage girls on the brink of entering the frightening world of adulthood, the novel weaves a story of defiance and indomitable spirit which feels perfectly primed for our time.
Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
ISBN: 9781472241726
Number of pages: 448
Weight: 309 g
Dimensions: 196 x 126 x 30 mm
An intriguing, gorgeously realised and written novel which inexorably draws you into its dark heart - Kate Hamer
It's a richly envisioned world, the strange isolation of which Melamed is excellent at teasing out slowly - Independent
An exceptional debut - Sunday Telegraph
A skilful novel full of suspense - Guardian
An assured, lyrical and vivid debut - Irish Independent
An obvious comparison is Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, and Melamed is more than equal a writer. Her prose is exact, the premise chilling and her characters all too plausible - Daily Mail, top debuts of 2017
Obsessed with The Handmaid's Tale? This brilliant book is the one for you - Stylist
[A] dark, compelling debut... At a time when it feels as if women's rights around the world are being slowly eroded this absorbing novel is both gripping and to-the-bone chilling. Melamed is definitely a talent to watch. - Daily Express
Gather the Daughters is an always-compelling and sometimes-shocking read as the horrific secrets of the island are slowly revealed. I read it in one sleep-deprived sitting - Red Magazine
Gather The Daughters is extraordinary, powerful, and harrowing-and yet hopeful in its portrait of the human spirit and the endurance of love. This is a visceral book on all levels and it is haunting me still - Julie Cohen
A terrifying work of speculative fiction ... Melamed is a masterful writer, and she establishes a hauntingly vivid atmosphere....This is a haunting work in the spirit of The Handmaid's Tale-but Melamed more than holds her own. Fearsome, vivid, and raw - Kirkus Reviews
Melamed's haunting and powerful debut blazes a fresh path in the tradition of classic dystopian works...a searing portrayal of a utopian society gone wrong...Melamed's prose is taut and precise. Her nuanced characters and honest examination of the crueler sides of human nature establish her as a formidable author in the vein of Shirley Jackson and Margaret Atwood - Publishers Weekly
At times harrowing in its depiction of cruelty, at other times joy-filled and buoyed by the spirit of liberated girlhood, this is an exhilarating, feminist cry-out, which I hope finds a wide readership - The Big Issue
A chilling, vividly realised feminist novel that propels the reader into the dark heart of a cruelly repressive and sinister society - Daily Mail
This is a timely book. Not only does it hit the shelves at a time when the TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaiden’s Tale is capturing the ratings; it is also prescient in the light of what is happening to... More
I was so interested in this one because it's ultimately about a cult. A cult who live on an island where very strict rules are put in place. Daughters are used to "comfort" their Father's during... More
Gather the Daughters is a rich, compulsive and poignant tale that explores the strength and resilience of human nature. Powerful and chilling, this book had such an impact on me, and since I finished, I’ve been... More
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