Discovering love in a matriarchal dystopia

In the last two years there have been two radical fictional visions of the future of female life from two very different Irish authors. Louise O’Neill’s debut novel, Only Ever Yours, published last year, imagines a world where women are bred solely to please men.

Segregated until they come of age as concubines (or teachers if they fail to achieve the womanly ideal), O’Neill’s novel sets a group of teenagers on the cusp ...