The Natural Way of Things A Novel

By: Charlotte Wood

Published by Penguin Group, 2026-03-10

<b>The prescient feminist fable and international classic described as <br>“<i>The Handmaid’s Tale </i>for our age” (<i>The Economist), </i>from the Booker-shortlisted author of <i>Stone Yard Devotional</i><br><br></b>When the women awaken from a drugged sleep to find themselves imprisoned in a broken-down property in the middle of a desert, they have no idea where they are or how they came to be there. Doing hard labor under a sweltering sun, guarded by two inept yet vicious jailers, the prisoners soon learn what links them: in each woman's past is a sexual scandal with a powerful man. They pray for rescue but as the hours turn into days and the days into weeks and months, it becomes clear that the women must rescue themselves.<br><br>Originally published in 2016 and ever more relevant upon its 10th anniversary, <i>The Natural Way of Things</i> is a lucid and illusory fable and a brilliantly plotted novel of ideas that reminds us of humankind's own vast contradictions—the capacity for savagery, selfishness, resilience, and redemption all contained by a single, vulnerable body.<br><br><b><br><br></b>