Eleven Percent

(Hardback)

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An inverse The Handmaid's Tale that asks: What if women took over the world "Emotionally enthralling and intellectually stimulating." -Booklist It is the New Time, a time not so different from our own except that the men are gone. All but eleven percent of them, that is, the minimum required to avoid inbreeding. But they are safely under lock and key in "spa" centers for women's pleasure (trained by amazons to fulfill all desires) and procreation. A few women protest that the males should be treated better - more space, better food, but all agree that testosterone cannot be allowed to roam free. The old patriarchal cities are crumbling, becoming overgrown; people now live in "round communities." But if you prefer the slum, that's okay too. Religion has survived, sort of: women priestesses speak in tongues, inspired by snake venom, as apples are passed around to the congregation. But all social engineering has its costs... Four different lives intersect: Medea, a tiny, long-haired witch and snake whisperer; Wicca, a young priestess who excelled at the "self-pleasuring" curriculum in school and has lost her pregnant lover; Eva, a doctor working in a spa center, and Silence, who lives in an almost abandoned convent. Each will discover the cracks in this women's paradise. Provocative, irreverent, and completely riveting, Eleven Percent-a #1 bestseller in Denmark-is the first novel to appear in English by celebrated Danish author Maren Uthaug.

Reviews

"A provocative dystopian tale... readers will be immersed in this world by the time the satisfying conclusion rolls around. It's an intriguing thought experiment about the consequences of gender oppression."
--Publishers Weekly

"From powerful priestesses to witchy convents, Eleven Percent vividly portrays a women-dominated world that is unrecognizable but also uncannily familiar in its depiction of gendered disenfranchisement."
--Booklist

"This thought-provoking, disturbing and beautiful vision of a female-dominated future world in which men are only kept for breeding shows us the seductive lure of a one-gender society, but also its dangers and poignant losses. Ultimately a hopeful plea for a more balanced coexistence."
--Christina Lynch, author of Sally Brady's Italian Adventure

"A haunting, horrifying, beautiful, and at times truly disgusting story of a mostly female utopia turned into a dystopia by a reductive understanding of gender that elevates a few and persecutes the rest. This dark and surprisingly funny tale of witches, snakes, priests, and genital-based oppression takes the reader into the depths of a matriarchy that has fallen into the same traps as the patriarchy it replaced. A wild, electric, essential read."
--Gabrielle Korn, author of Yours for the Taking

Danish Praise for Eleven Percent

"A sweepingly beautiful feminist futurist fable."
--Politiken

"From the first pages it draws its reader into Uthaug's powerfully sensuous depiction of a future matriarchy. Hugely engrossing and entertaining."
--Berlingske

"Has enough grit and bite to both entertain, outrage and elicit debate."
--Litteratursiden

"Uthaug exuberantly expresses an eco-feminist vision of a world dominated by femininity."
--Jyllands-Posten

"Imaginative and mischievously satirical... One of the most original future fiction books I've come across."
--Kristeligt Dagblad

Author Bio

Maren Uthaug is an award-winning author of four novels, and has a daily cartoon strip in Denmark's largest newspaper. Her critically acclaimed second novel Where There are Birds was awarded the Danish Broadcasting Corporation's Novel of the Year Award in 2018, and her third novel A Happy Ending received the Readers' Choice Award. Born in the town of Uthaug, Norway, she lives in Copenhagen.