The Women Could Fly, Megan GIddings ( paperback August 2023)

£9.99

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.

Finally ready to let go of the past, Jo's future is in doubt. The State mandates that all women marry by the age of 30 - or forfeit their autonomy by registering to be monitored. At 28, Jo is ambivalent about marriage, feeling she has never understood her mother more.

When 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. 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, set in a world in which magic is real and single women are closely monitored in case they are shown to be witches .