The Sisterhood: Big Brother is watching. But they won't see her coming.

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A dazzling retelling of the classic dystopian novel, which raises profound questions about how society works, and whether or not woman have political agency. I found it memorable, deeply moving, and at times, terrifying' KATE RHODES I'm a massive George Orwell fan, obviously, and 1984 didn't need retelling as a standalone book. It's fabulous, I've read it many times. I'm an English teacher, I teach it as well. But I noticed, on the latest reading, that Julia's a very silent character. She hasn't got a surname, for example. It's not clear what she does for a job. But I did become interested in Julia, and during the novel, it's really clear that everybody knows about this mysterious organization, The Brotherhood. So, you don't have to read 1984 to read The Sisterhood as it's about other people who are also looking for The Brotherhood. Obviously, there are tyrannous regimes around the world at the moment, and I think how they land on women is often very different than how they land on men. So, I thought that was why it might be worth having an exploratory look at how it lands on women, how it lands on this quite a silent character, Julia, and just taking one character and then seeing what she was up to.’

But in this world where having your own opinion is a crime, where the only emotion allowed is love for Big Brother and hate for Oceania's enemies, Outer Party Julia and the other members of The Sisterhood do whatever they can to fight for a free future. Hoping that she found a member of another rebel group - The Brotherhood, Julia sets out to gain information that will finally help then take down Big Brother. But no matter how careful she is, she is always being watched - like everyone else. But she has a weapon, her true identity, which might be the only thing she can use to take down Ingsoc or might be her downfall.Orwell wrote six novels, three classic works of non-fiction, and more than a million words of journalism, but in IP terms everything else is dwarfed by the twin peaks of his career: Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm. They are two very different books with a shared political agenda. First Orwell explained the rise of Soviet totalitarianism in the form of a farmyard allegory; four years later, he used dystopian science fiction to anatomise the methods of an all-powerful totalitarian state. One was a lesson from the recent past; the other a warning to the future. For as long as regimes seek to distort reality and suppress liberty, these books will have anxious readers.

A gut-wrenching, heart-breaking journey through the looking glass of 1984. Compulsively written, Julia’s is a story begging to be told' FREYA BERRY, author of The Dictator's Wife Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel which reimagines the life of the queen from the Indian epic the Ramayana. Photograph: Little, BrownI think it's just greed for power ultimately, isn't it? I think that there will always be some people who will want more than their fair share. “Should there be a retelling of 1984?” somebody asked me. When we look at the news now, there is a lot of discussion and debate and thought about fairness in society and who has the power and how the power is wielded. And I wonder what Orwell would say about surveillance. For example, would he say that we don't have to worry anymore? Would he be quite relaxed about having an Alexa in his home? I don't think so. I think he would bang the drum. I like to think he would say: “Bang it louder, louder. We need to be worried about this. We need to be careful about what we give over to other people voluntarily out of trust.”’ Tan agrees: “Books could delve into the same myth and yet be completely different – no story is ever the same with each writer bringing a new perspective, creating a different world and characters, or choosing to highlight a different element of the tale. The female perspective has become more valued – story, regardless of genre, now rightfully reflects that.”

Mark asked Katherine Bradley a philosophical question: ‘Why do societies allow this to happen? Having studied Orwell as you have many times and now written The Sisterhood, how do you answer that question?’Sinister, chilling and heart-breaking, it’s a worthy successor to Orwell’s dystopian classic, allowing readers to explore a new version of Julia’s story' Frightening and timely, Bradley’s The Sisterhood is the book everyone should read this year. If you thought it ended with Orwell, think again . . .' CHRISTINA DALCHER