Jonathon Bridge's arrival at the Fortress – a society run and populated by women – begins with a recitation of the conditions of his stay: he is forbidden to ask questions, to raise his hand in anger, and to refuse sex.

Jonathon has offered himself as a supplicant in the Fortress after his pregnant wife discovered the ugly sexual violence pervading his top-tier firm. She has agreed to continue their fractured relationship on the condition he enter the Fortress for one year.

Jonathon is utterly unprepared for what will happen to him over the course of the year – not only to his body, but his mind and his heart.

The Fortress offers a fascinating, timely, and often challenging, alternative to patriarchal society. The Fortress itself is many things – a self-sustaining city-state run by women, a space to atone for toxic corporate masculinity, and the site of male sexual submission. But it's also a meticulously wrought and beautifully depicted parallel universe of rolling hills, crashing waves, gardens lush with herbs and flowers, storms and sunshine. This is much more than a novel of ideas – it's a beautifully crafted, warm and entertaining work by an author at the peak of her powers. To step into the Fortress is to be altered forever.