The Women Could Fly cover art

The Women Could Fly

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

The Women Could Fly

By: Megan Giddings
Narrated by: Angel Pean
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £9.99

Buy Now for £9.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Reminiscent of the works of Margaret Atwood, Deborah Harkness, and Octavia E. Butler, The Women Could Fly is a feminist speculative novel that speaks to our times. A piercing dystopian tale about the unbreakable bond between a young woman and her absent mother, set in a world in which magic is real and single women are closely monitored in case they are shown to be witches . . .

Josephine Thomas has heard every conceivable theory about her mother’s disappearance. That she was kidnapped. Murdered. That she took on a new identity to start a new family. That she was a witch. This is the most worrying charge, because in a world where witches are real, peculiar behaviour raises suspicions and a woman – especially a Black woman – can find herself on trial for witchcraft.

But fourteen years have passed since her mother’s disappearance, and now Jo is finally ready to let go of the past. Yet her future is in doubt. The State mandates that all women marry by the age of thirty – or enrol in a registry that allows them to be monitored, effectively forfeiting their autonomy. At twenty-eight, Jo is ambivalent about marriage. With her ability to control her life on the line, she feels as if she has never understood her mother more. When she’s offered the opportunity to honour one last request from her mother’s will, Jo leaves her regular life to feel connected to her one last time.

In this powerful and timely novel, Megan Giddings explores the limits women face – and the powers they have to transgress and transcend them.

©2022 Megan Giddings (P)2022 HarperCollins
Dystopian Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Magic Magical Realism Science Fiction Women's Fiction Disappearance Witchcraft Magic Users

Listeners also enjoyed...

Woman on the Edge of Time cover art
Julia cover art
Poster Girl cover art
Moths cover art
The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Volume 1 cover art
Parable of the Sower cover art
Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion cover art
They Call Him Nas cover art
Trouble the Living cover art
My Brother's Destroyer cover art
The Salt Roads cover art
Cinderella Is Dead cover art
When Things Get Dark cover art
Their Dark Valkyrie cover art
Where the Story Starts cover art
A Thug's Love cover art

Critic reviews

'Megan Giddings's prose is brimming with wonder. The Women Could Fly is a candid appraisal of grief, inheritance, and the merits of unruliness.' Raven Leilani

'It can be tempting to read The Women Could Fly, which comes in the shadow of the recent Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, and call the book timely. But the relationship at the heart of this novel — between Jo and her mercurial mother — is much closer to timeless.' - The New York Times

All stars
Most relevant  
I struggled with the narrator's flat delivery, I guess it was done purposely, but unsure if it works.
I enjoyed the story though

wanted more

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Really enjoyed listening rather than reading- narrator was fabulous - very different but perfect for this book.

absolutely loved it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

The story shows what would happen if Puritan society still ruled in America: injustices to woman, fuelled with “here and now” capitalist greed, power, sexism, homophobia and racism. It is so closely intertwined with modern day social inequalities you forget the narrative is partly imagination. All the while it’s a story of woman’s empowerment and determination. A brilliant piece of literature.
P.S I will encourage my bi-racial daughter to read it (when she’s grown up). I, personally , learnt a lot too.

Brilliant concept blending poignant historical injustice with dystopian society.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This is a good book, with strong performances but I did not enjoy it. 2022 seems doom laden and a dystopian novel is perhaps not the best choice at the moment. If you want to add a dollop of hopelessness to the current zeitgeist then go for it. If, like me you already feel anxious and depressed then do yourself a favour and stay away.

depressing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.