Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.

Lian Hingee is reading The Power by Naomi Alderman

Margaret Atwood’s endorsement (‘Electrifying! Shocking!’) is prominently displayed on the front cover of Naomi Alderman’s new book and it’s an apt one. Alderman was selected as a protégé by Atwood in 2012, and The Power is a glorious inverse companion piece to The Handmaid’s Tale.

This sci-fi novel is cleverly packaged inside correspondence between a young man and his mentor (who also happens to be the author, Naomi Alderman). The two are discussing a book that the young man has written exploring a specific period in history, the Cataclysm, that took place many thousand of years prior to their lifetimes. The young man explains that in his book he has charted the rise of women and the birth of the brutal, matriarchal society in which he and his mentor now exist.

The novel that follows is the one they’ve been discussing, and as you being to read the story it becomes clear that the Cataclysm is, basically, now.

Focusing on the fates of four individuals – the daughter of a gangster who sees her mother murdered in front of her; a teenage girl who’s subjected to repeated sexual assaults from her foster father; a single mother whose attempts to smash through the glass ceiling are constantly stymied by a male workmate; and a young Nigerian journalist who observes the action through the male gaze – The Power sees young women evolving the ability to generate and conduct massive arcs of energy from their fingertips. This dangerous weapon, now in the hands of a gender that been downtrodden, exploited and abused for generations, leads to a seismic shift in power, and the rise of women is a far from bloodless coup for either side.

Full of observations on gender politics, power, religion and violence, Alderman’s novel is also a rip-roaring, fast paced thriller. It’s sly, smart, terrifying – the perfect antidote to a post-Trump world.

Bronte Coates is reading Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra (translated by Megan McDowell)

It’s possible that this strange, slender volume slipped past you last year. There’s always a lot of noise at the end of a year and Alejandro Zambra’s latest release – with its unconventional structure based on the Chilean academic aptitude test of 1993 – can be a hard sell for the holidays.

A wry and melancholic read, Multiple Choice is compelling. Some of the book’s sections were very funny; others surprised me by their depth of feeling. As with Zambra’s earlier books, Multiple Choice is an exploration of Chilean life under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, and it’s a wonderfully nuanced portrayal. One of my favourite parts saw a group of friends discussing what matters most to Chile, unable to agree on the one most important thing: ‘the urgent thing is for Pinochet to go to jail, to go to trial, to go to hell, the urgent thing is to find the bodies of the disappeared, the urgent thing is education…’ This simple scene vividly conveyed a sense of claustrophobia and helplessness that felt so familiar to me, and may to you also.

If you live in Adelaide then look out for Zambra, who is coming to Adelaide Writers’ Week this year, alongside a host of other terrific guests.

Chris Gordon is reading Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth

Here’s what I knew before going into this book… 1. Veronica Roth is a world famous author and she’s not even 30 yet. 2. Her Divergent trilogy sparked many conversations about the trends in dystopian YA literature. 3. Her writing is addictive and she crafts fantastical worlds that grip readers.

For myself, I raced through Carve the Mark in the one weekend. The first book in a two-part series, the story takes place on a planet where violence is commonplace. Everyone in this world has developed a ‘current gift’ – a unique power meant to shape the future – and while most benefit from this ability, Akos and Cyra have frighteningly learned that their current gifts actually make them vulnerable to others’ control. They must decide whether to band together to survive, or not…