And I knew that other people I knew would feel sick, too. Often, I would check social media or the news and see stories. And so while it did feel kind of in your face, it also felt very real. It felt like there were a lot of views that had kind of gained legitimacy in terms of how we spoke about women's bodies and how it was acceptable to act towards women. And it felt like the world was changing really rapidly.

MACKINTOSH: I think the year I wrote the book was 2016. And that disaster, to me, I managed to kind of distill into this idea of, what if masculinity was literally toxic and would affect women physically? And from there, everything kind of slotted into place.įADEL: That's a pretty in-your-face choice to make it a physical thing - that it actually makes women sick. I realized as I was writing that I didn't actually need to invent a flooded world or any kind of tragedy because it felt like there was a disaster happening anyway. And, actually, in my original draft, the family lived on an oil rig, and the world was completely flooded. MACKINTOSH: So I was working on a book about a family in an isolated environment. Sophie Mackintosh joins us now from the BBC in London.įADEL: So why don't we start with where the idea for this book came from? It's a genre that explores uncomfortable and pervasive topics from violence and misogyny to what happens when women don't have reproductive rights. Sophie Mackintosh's debut novel 'The Water Cure' is one of several feminist dystopian novels that have come out in the past few years. They live in a mansion on an island, where other women come to heal from violent pasts and share their stories.

In a futuristic world where men are literally toxic to women, three sisters are raised in isolation with Mother and King, the only man they've ever known.

The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh