Author(s): Petra Hulova

Novel | Dystopia, Science Fiction and Fantasy | Czech Republic

In this utopia, the feminist Movement has been successful and women rule the world. Men are trained at reeducation facilities to accept the new normal in this futuristic satire challenging our sexual norms.

The Movement's founding ideology emphasises that women should be valued for their inner qualities, and not for their physical attributes. Men have been forbidden to be attracted to women on the basis of their bodies. While some continue unreformed, many submit - or are sent by wives and daughters - to the Institute for internment and reeducation. Our narrator, an unapologetic guard at one of these reeducation facilities, describes how the Movement started, her own personal journey, and what happens when a program fails. She is convinced the Movement is nearing its final victory - a time when everybody will fall in line with its ideals.

Outspoken, ambiguous, and terrifying, this socio-critical satire of our sexual norms sets the reader firmly outside of their comfort zone.

Praise for The Movement

"One part Animal Farm, one part The Handmaid's Tale, one part A Clockwork Orange, and (maybe) one part Frankenstein, Czech writer Hulova's novel dismantles the patriarchy and replaces it with a terrifying alternative...Hulova's provocative satire of a feminist future challenges and unsettles in equal parts." --Kirkus Reviews

"A thought-provoking and disturbing dystopian tale of a feminist revolution." --Publishers Weekly

"Hulova wants her readers uncomfortable, and succeeds beautifully, distorting and exaggerating admirable aspirations, asking what we are willing to sacrifice for a better society, and wondering what the New World should look like." --Calvert Journal

"With echoes of The Handmaid's Tale but putting the women in charge, The Movement beckons us into a brave new world where men are institutionalised and re-educated--by any means necessary--to value women's inner worth. The Movement challenges and unsettles, offering a candid glimpse of the underbelly of feminist utopia, and raising important ethical questions about how far we might want or have to go in order to secure a truly equal world. Hulova's distinctive voice is crystallised in Alex Zucker's fierce and flawless translation: this unapologetically provocative story is simultaneously a clarion call, a feminist manifesto, and a warning of the dangers lurking in both the old world and the new." --HELEN VASSALLO, Translating Women

"In a dystopian future where women rule, society is re-educated to teach men--and women--that women should be valued for traits other than their appearance or age. The novel is dark and satirical; while feminism is in the foreground, the author somehow manages a balancing act between manifesto and critique." --Lithub

"Hulova's story can be read primarily as a timeless fable about how the best of human intentions always end up paving the road to some totalitarian hell." --Dublin Review of Books

Author Biography: Petra Hulova's provocative novels, plays, and screenplays have won numerous awards, including the ALTA National Translation Award for Alex Zucker's translation of her debut novel, All This Belongs to Me, and she is a regular commentator on current events for the Czech press. She studied language, culture, and anthropology at universities in Prague, Ulan Bator, and New York, and was a Fulbright scholar in the USA. Her eight novels and three plays have been translated into thirteen languages. She used to define her writing as "3G" always working with topics of gender, generations, and geography. Her novels are often narrated in first person and range from intimate confessions to buoyant epic sagas. The Movement is her latest novel.