5 Alternative Books To Help You Through The Next Four Years Of Political Madness

Naomi Alderman was mentored by Margaret Atwood and boy can you tell.

'The Power' is a hot topic (the TV rights have already been sold) and feels so perfectly timed, you can hardly believe it.

The novel sees the world become a matriarchy as women get the ability to electrocute with their bare hands.

Although it sounds gimmicky, the novel avoids it due to its eye to detail power play and shifts in dominance.

For many years people assume statements like ' no woman started a world war' but 'The Power' argues that maybe they would if they could.

Originally named, 'Stories Of Your Life And Others', Ted Chiang's collection 'Arrival' is the crème de la crème of Sci-fi writing.

Deeply rooted in academic subjects like maths, engineering, theology, linguistics and so on, Chiang utilises challenging theories to illuminate the human condition.

Preoccupied with apparent dichotomies of thought,  like reason vs faith for example, Chiang will dismantle the binary ideas with super effective clarity that will leave you feeling very wise (or maybe a little confused) at its close.

This 'book', which is neither novel, nor short story collection, follows an ever changing and overlapping cast of characters from the 1970s to 2020s.

Largely centered around New York this almost sci-fi book will act as escapism from your Trump worries.

Focussing on time's relentless force, it illustrates the connected nature of the human race.

The final, Orwellian story will make you reflect on speech's politicised aspect as well as our ability to connect in spite of technology and fear.

Philip Roth's 2004 bestseller reimagines 1940s America under the presidency of the famous (real) aviator Charles A. Lindbergh. 

Lindbergh, who wins the election over Roosevelt, is a Nazi sympathiser and isolationist who places Henry Ford in his council.

His anti-semitic views are supported by many US citizen's in the South and Midwest, and even some disillusioned Jewish people.

The novel if from the standpoint of a young boy, named Philip Roth, and it follows his Jewish family's difficulty in Lindbergh's America.

Much more than a 'what-if' fiction, this book's plot is made all the more plausible by recent real life events.

No alternative reality list would be complete without the Queen of dystopia, Margaret Atwood.

The Handmaid's Tale was written in 1985 and is set in New England in the not-so-distant 'future'.

The country that once was the USA has been taken over by a dictatorship which is deeply religious (fanatically and radically Christian) and strips women of all their rights.

The country suffers from home-grown terrorist attacks and the novel follows Offred in her struggle as, essentially, a sex slave for the ruling class.

This read is essential to enlighten yourself about equal rights, access to education and the merging of church and state.