Atwood concludes her celebrated dystopian trilogy
Thursday, Sep 26, 2013 at 8:12pmA man-made plague has swept the earth leaving only a small band of survivors and the green-eyed Crakers, a gentle species bio-engineered to replace humans, struggling under the constant threat of attack from giant Pigoons and malevolent Painballers. Such is the world of MaddAddam, the thrilling conclusion to Margaret Atwood's speculative fiction trilogy which began with Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood.
Told with wit, imagination and dark humour, MaddAddam is an unpredictable, chilling and often hilarious tale that takes us further into Atwood's challenging dystopian world as she holds up a skewed mirror to our own possible future. Yet her vision is as affirming as it is cautionary, and the conclusion of this remarkable trilogy leaves us not with a sense of despair at our failings but with a sense of awe at humanity's barely explored potential to evolve.
Ms. Atwood will be in our Grant Park store at 2:00 PM on Wednesday, October 16th, to discuss and sign copies of MaddAddam. More details on the event can be found here.
Read more on Atwood's incredible career, as well as the upcoming ballet adaptation of her novel, The Handmaid's Tale, after the jump...
Since the publication of her first novel, The Edible Woman, in 1969, Margaret Atwood has been a major literary figure both here in Canada and abroad. She has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times, winning once, and has been a finalist for the Governor General's Award several times, winning twice. A poet, novelist, literary critic and essayist, she has never allowed the challenges of form or genre to keep her from exploring the themes that interest her.
In a genre-busting move that even Atwood had not envisioned, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet has turned The Handmaid's Tale into a ballet. It is set to launch the RWB's 74th season in October. "I didn't think it would be a film and certainly not an opera and most certainly not a ballet," said Atwood, who was still trying to get her head around the concept at an earlier press conference.
Acclaimed New York-based choreographer Lila York brings to life the work's prophetic spirit and human story in a powerful and poignant interpretation of the gripping tale.
This article was taken from our September/October issue of The Bookseller, our store newsletter. Pick up your own copy of The Bookseller in-store for free, or read an interactive version online.
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Oryx and Crake
- Margaret Atwood 
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Oryx and Crake is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future.
Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey--with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake--through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride. Margaret Atwood projects us into a near future that is both all too familiar and beyond our imagining.
The Year of the Flood
- Margaret Atwood
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From the Booker Prize-winning author of Oryx and Crake, the first book in the MaddAddam Trilogy, and The Handmaid's Tale. Internationally acclaimed as ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR by, amongst others, the Globe and Mail, the New York Times, the New Yorker, and the Village Voice
In a world driven by shadowy, corrupt corporations and the uncontrolled development of new, gene-spliced life forms, a man-made pandemic occurs, obliterating human life. Two people find they have unexpectedly survived: Ren, a young dancer locked inside the high-end sex club Scales and Tails (the cleanest dirty girls in town), and Toby, solitary and determined, who has barricaded herself inside a luxurious spa, watching and waiting. The women have to decide on their next move--they can't stay hidden forever. But is anyone else out there?
The Edible Woman
- Margaret Atwood
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Marian has a problem.
A willing member of the consumer society in which she lives, she suddenly finds herself identifying with the things being consumed. She can cope with her tidy-minded fiancé, Peter, who likes shooting rabbits. She can cope with her job in market research, and the antics of her roommate. She can even cope with Duncan, a graduate student who seems to prefer laundromats to women. But not being able to eat is a different matter. Steak was the first to go. Then lamb, pork, and the rest. Next came her incapacity to face an egg. Vegetables were the final straw. But Marian has her reasons, and what happens next provides an unusual solution.
Witty, subversive, hilarious, The Edible Woman is dazzling and utterly original. It is Margaret Atwood's brilliant first novel, and the book that introduced her as a consummate observer of the ironies and absurdities of modern life.
The Handmaid's Tale
- Margaret Atwood
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An instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from "the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction" (New York Times). Now an award-winning Hulu series starring Elizabeth Moss.
In this multi-award-winning, bestselling novel, Margaret Atwood has created a stunning Orwellian vision of the near future. This is the story of Offred, one of the unfortunate "Handmaids" under the new social order who have only one purpose: to breed. In Gilead, where women are prohibited from holding jobs, reading, and forming friendships, Offred's persistent memories of life in the "time before" and her will to survive are acts of rebellion. Provocative, startling, prophetic, and with Margaret Atwood's devastating irony, wit, and acute perceptive powers in full force, The Handmaid's Tale is at once a mordant satire and a dire warning.
