Guardian Live Bookclub | Margaret Atwood (online)

Thursday 11th of February at 20:00h

For our February Book Club Atwood will revisit the first novel in her Maddaddam trilogy. A dystopian parable, Oryx and Crake (2003), was Atwood’s first return to the future since The Handmaid’s Tale, placing the reader in a world ravaged by a man-made plague. Atwood paints a stark warning about humanity’s impact on the natural world, in a novel she once described as a “fun-packed, joke-filled, rollicking adventure tale about the end of the human race.” She has said of her work, “I am not a prophet. Science fiction is really about now.”

Atwood’s novels include Alias Grace, The Robber Bride and the Booker-winning The Blind Assassin. When the hugely influential The Handmaid’s Tale was first adapted for TV it seemed alarmingly relevant to our political moment. The publication of its sequel, The Testaments, was the literary event of 2019.

Join us for this rare opportunity to hear from one of the most singular and influential voices in contemporary fiction.

This livestreamed event is part of our online Book Club series, in which The Guardian’s chief books writer, Lisa Allardice, talks to leading writers about their latest novels, creative process and isolation. They will also be answering your live questions.

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