Naomi Alderman's new novel "The Strangers" is a hybrid of memoir and speculative fiction that explores grief through the mysterious appearance of a new species of creatures called mimmoths. The narrator, presented as Alderman herself, grieves her mother's recent death and a series of failed pregnancies whilst describing these inscrutable creatures that seem to improve local soil quality. The review praises the book as a "deeply moving and wise" examination of loss that successfully evokes the disorienting emotional terrain of bereavement.

The plot follows the discovery of flat-faced, long-nosed mammals known as mimmoths, which remain largely inscrutable to humans yet become subjects of conspiracy theories, worship, and political polarisation. Some view the creatures as harbingers of a better future sent to teach humanity care for itself and the planet, whilst others dismiss them as "invaders, genetic freaks, not natural". Alderman handles these political allegories with restraint, sketching contemporary British institutions and media environments through careful world-building, whilst using the speculative framework to give form to the otherwise ineffable aspects of grief.