Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa in 1939, and grew up in northern Quebec and Ontario, and later in Toronto. She has lived in numerous cities in Canada, the U.S., and Europe.
She is the author of more than thirty books, novels, short stories, poetry, literary criticism, social history, and books for children.
Atwood's work is acclaimed internationally and has been published around the world. Her novels include The Handmaid's Tale and Cat's Eye, both shortlisted for the Booker Prize; The Robber Bride; Alias Grace, winner of the prestigious Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy, and a finalist for the Booker Prize, the Orange Prize, and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award; and The Blind Assassin, winner of the Booker Prize and a finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her new novel is Oryx and Crake. She is the recipient of numerous honours, such as The Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence in the U.K., the National Arts Club Medal of Honor for Literature in the U.S., Le Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France, and she was the first winner of the London Literary Prize. She has received honorary degrees from universities across Canada, and one from Oxford University in England.
Margaret Atwood lives in Toronto with novelist Graeme Gibson.
"Ingenious and disturbing.... A landmark work of speculative
fiction, comparable to A Clockwork Orange, Brave New World....
Atwood has surpassed herself." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Rigorous in its chilling insights and riveting in its fast-paced
'what if' dramatization, Atwood's superb novel is as brilliantly
provocative as it is profoundly engaging." -- Booklist (starred
review) "Oryx and Crake is Atwood at her playful, allegorical
best." -- Globe and Mail
"[Oryx and Crake is written] with a style and grace that
demonstrate again just how masterful a storyteller she is. If one
measure of art's power is its ability to force you to face what you
would very much rather not, Oryx and Crake -- the evocative tale of
a nightmarish near-future -- is an extraordinary work of art, one
that reaffirms Atwood's place at the apex of Canadian literature."
-- Maclean's "Atwood's new masterpiece....Extraordinary.... [Atwood
pulls] back the curtain on her terrible vision with such
tantalizing precision, its fearsome implications don't fully reveal
themselves until the final pages.... A darkly comic work of
speculative fiction." -- W Magazine (U.S.) "For all its artistic
achievement, this novel poses serious questions.... Margaret Atwood
is a consummate artist, yes, but her work also pricks our social
and ethical consciousness. That is a rare combination, an important
achievement...." -- Globe and Mail
"Atwood's great talent for narrative has never been displayed to
better effect." -- Toronto Star
"Riveting....Chesterton once wrote of the 'thousand romances that
lie secreted in The Origin of Species.' Atwood has extracted one of
the most hair-raising of them, and one of the most brilliant." --
Publishers Weekly "Oryx and Crake is Atwood at her best -- dark,
dry, scabrously witty, yet moving and studded with flashes of pure
poetry. Her gloriously inventive brave new world is all the more
chilling because of the mirror it holds up to our own. Citizens, be
warned." -- The Independent (U.K.) "Oryx and Crake can hold its own
against any of the 20th century's most potent dystopias -- Brave
New World, 1984, The Space Merchants -- with regard to both
dramatic impact and fertility of invention....Oryx and Crake
showcases a nightmare version of the present era of globalization
on a globe coming apart at its ecological seams.... It is a
scathing (because bang-on) portrait of the way we live
now....Majestic...." -- Washington Post
"Is there a more accomplished or versatile writer, in Canada, than
Margaret Atwood?... Atwood is on top of the times -- intuits them,
really.... The moral questions of Oryx and Crake are already in
play." -- National Post (profile) "Oryx and Crake is a broad canvas
that allows Atwood to show off her brilliant talent for satire and
wordplay, as well as her considerable love and knowledge of the
natural world." -- Quill & Quire
"Wonderfully vivid, and the sardonic unveiling of future history
makes for a strong narrative drive." -- National Post
"Perfectly constructed, funny, and satiric. It is inventive yet
prophetic, in fact, apocalyptic and weirdly feasible.... It is
brilliant." -- Winnipeg Free Press "Oryx and Crake is set just the
other side of the evening news, in a future so close we can smell
its stench....Atwood has outdone herself here." -- Georgia Straight
"Contemporary novelists rarely write about science or technology.
Margaret Atwood tackles both -- and more -- in one of the year's
most surprising novels." -- The Economist
" Ingenious and disturbing.... A landmark work of speculative
fiction, comparable to A Clockwork Orange, Brave New World....
Atwood has surpassed herself." -- "Kirkus Reviews" (starred
review)
" Rigorous in its chilling insights and riveting in its fast-paced
' what if' dramatization, Atwood's superb novel is as brilliantly
provocative as it is profoundly engaging." -- "Booklist" (starred
review)
" Oryx and Crake is Atwood at her playful, allegorical best." --
"Globe and Mail
"
" [Oryx and Crake is written] with a style and grace that
demonstrate again just how masterful a storyteller she is. If one
measure of art's power is its ability to force you to face what you
would very much rather not, Oryx and Crake -- the evocative tale of
a nightmarish near-future -- is an extraordinary work of art, one
that reaffirms Atwood's place at the apex of Canadian literature."
-- "Maclean's
"" Atwood's new masterpiece.... Extraordinary.... [Atwood pulls]
back the curtain on her terrible vision with such tantalizing
precision, its fearsome implications don't fully reveal themselves
until the final pages.... A darkly comic work of speculative
fiction." -- "W Magazine "(U.S.)
" For all its artistic achievement, this novel poses serious
questions.... Margaret Atwood is a consummate artist, yes, but her
work also pricks our social and ethical consciousness. That is a
rare combination, an important achievement.... " -- "Globe and
Mail
"
" Atwood's great talent for narrative has never been displayed to
bettereffect." -- "Toronto Star
"
" Riveting.... Chesterton once wrote of the ' thousand romances
that lie secreted in The Origin of Species.' Atwood has extracted
one of the most hair-raising of them, and one of the most
brilliant." -- "Publishers Weekly
"" Oryx and Crake is Atwood at her best -- dark, dry, scabrously
witty, yet moving and studded with flashes of pure poetry. Her
gloriously inventive brave new world is all the more chilling
because of the mirror it holds up to our own. Citizens, be warned."
-- "The Independent" (U.K.)
" Oryx and Crake can hold its own against any of the 20th century's
most potent dystopias -- Brave New World," "1984, The Space
Merchants -- with regard to both dramatic impact and fertility of
invention.... Oryx and Crake showcases a nightmare version of the
present era of globalization on a globe coming apart at its
ecological seams.... It is a scathing (because bang-on) portrait of
the way we live now.... Majestic.... " -- "Washington Post
"
" Is there a more accomplished or versatile writer, in Canada, than
Margaret Atwood?... Atwood is on top of the times -- intuits them,
really.... The moral questions of Oryx and Crake are already in
play." -- "National Post" (profile)
" Oryx and Crake is a broad canvas that allows Atwood to show off
her brilliant talent for satire and wordplay, as well as her
considerable love and knowledge of the natural world." -- "Quill &
Quire
"
" Wonderfully vivid, and the sardonic unveiling of future history
makes for a strong narrative drive." -- "NationalPost
"
" Perfectly constructed, funny, and satiric. It is inventive yet
prophetic, in fact, apocalyptic and weirdly feasible.... It is
brilliant." -- "Winnipeg Free Press
"" Oryx and Crake" "is set just the other side of the evening news,
in a future so close we can smell its stench.... Atwood has outdone
herself here." -- "Georgia Straight
"" Contemporary novelists rarely write about science or technology.
Margaret Atwood tackles both -- and more -- in one of the year's
most surprising novels." -- "The Economist"
Atwood has visited the future before, in her dystopian novel, The Handmaid's Tale. In her latest, the future is even bleaker. The triple whammy of runaway social inequality, genetic technology and catastrophic climate change, has finally culminated in some apocalyptic event. As Jimmy, apparently the last human being on earth, makes his way back to the RejoovenEsencecompound for supplies, the reader is transported backwards toward that cataclysmic event, its full dimensions gradually revealed. Jimmy grew up in a world split between corporate compounds (gated communities metastasized into city-states) and pleeblands (unsafe, populous and polluted urban centers). His best friend was "Crake," the name originally his handle in an interactive Net game, Extinctathon. Even Jimmy's mother-who ran off and joined an ecology guerrilla group when Jimmy was an adolescent-respected Crake, already a budding genius. The two friends first encountered Oryx on the Net; she was the eight-year-old star of a pedophilic film on a site called HottTotts. Oryx's story is a counterpoint to Jimmy and Crake's affluent adolescence. She was sold by her Southeast Asian parents, taken to the city and eventually made into a sex "pixie" in some distant country. Jimmy meets Oryx much later-after college, after Crake gets Jimmy a job with ReJoovenEsence. Crake is designing the Crakers-a new, multicolored placid race of human beings, smelling vaguely of citron. He's procured Oryx to be his personal assistant. She teaches the Crakers how to cope in the world and goes out on secret missions. The mystery on which this riveting, disturbing tale hinges is how Crake and Oryx and civilization vanished, and how Jimmy-who also calls himself "the Snowman," after that other rare, hunted specimen, the Abominable Snowman-survived. Chesterton once wrote of the "thousand romances that lie secreted in The Origin of Species." Atwood has extracted one of the most hair-raising of them, and one of the most brilliant. (May 6) Forecast: Readers who know Atwood primarily as the author of The Handmaid's Tale will be thrilled by this return to the future; those who follow her work more closely will be even more impressed. This is a potential dystopian classic and should sell accordingly. Author tour. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
"Ingenious and disturbing.... A landmark work of speculative fiction, comparable to A Clockwork Orange, Brave New World.... Atwood has surpassed herself." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Rigorous in its chilling insights and riveting in its
fast-paced 'what if' dramatization, Atwood's superb novel is as
brilliantly provocative as it is profoundly engaging." --
Booklist (starred review) "Oryx and Crake is Atwood
at her playful, allegorical best." -- Globe and Mail
"[Oryx and Crake is written] with a style and grace that
demonstrate again just how masterful a storyteller she is. If one
measure of art's power is its ability to force you to face what you
would very much rather not, Oryx and Crake -- the evocative
tale of a nightmarish near-future -- is an extraordinary work of
art, one that reaffirms Atwood's place at the apex of Canadian
literature." -- Maclean's "Atwood's new
masterpiece....Extraordinary.... [Atwood pulls] back the curtain on
her terrible vision with such tantalizing precision, its fearsome
implications don't fully reveal themselves until the final
pages.... A darkly comic work of speculative fiction." -- W
Magazine (U.S.) "For all its artistic achievement, this novel poses
serious questions.... Margaret Atwood is a consummate artist, yes,
but her work also pricks our social and ethical consciousness. That
is a rare combination, an important achievement...." -- Globe and
Mail
"Atwood's great talent for narrative has never been displayed to
better effect." -- Toronto Star
"Riveting....Chesterton once wrote of the 'thousand romances that
lie secreted in The Origin of Species.' Atwood has extracted
one of the most hair-raising of them, and one of the most
brilliant." -- Publishers Weekly "Oryx and Crake is Atwood
at her best -- dark, dry, scabrously witty, yet moving and studded
with flashes of pure poetry. Her gloriously inventive brave new
world is all the more chilling because of the mirror it holds up to
our own. Citizens, be warned." -- The Independent (U.K.) "Oryx
and Crake can hold its own against any of the 20th century's
most potent dystopias -- Brave New World, 1984, The Space
Merchants -- with regard to both dramatic impact and fertility
of invention....Oryx and Crake showcases a nightmare version
of the present era of globalization on a globe coming apart at its
ecological seams.... It is a scathing (because bang-on) portrait of
the way we live now....Majestic...." -- Washington Post
"Is there a more accomplished or versatile writer, in Canada, than
Margaret Atwood?... Atwood is on top of the times -- intuits them,
really.... The moral questions of Oryx and Crake are already
in play." -- National Post (profile) "Oryx and Crake is a
broad canvas that allows Atwood to show off her brilliant talent
for satire and wordplay, as well as her considerable love and
knowledge of the natural world." -- Quill & Quire
"Wonderfully vivid, and the sardonic unveiling of future history
makes for a strong narrative drive." -- National Post
"Perfectly constructed, funny, and satiric. It is inventive yet
prophetic, in fact, apocalyptic and weirdly feasible.... It is
brilliant." -- Winnipeg Free Press "Oryx and Crake is set
just the other side of the evening news, in a future so close we
can smell its stench....Atwood has outdone herself here." --
Georgia Straight "Contemporary novelists rarely write about
science or technology. Margaret Atwood tackles both -- and more --
in one of the year's most surprising novels." -- The Economist
" Ingenious and disturbing.... A landmark work of speculative
fiction, comparable to A Clockwork Orange, Brave New World....
Atwood has surpassed herself." -- "Kirkus Reviews" (starred
review)
" Rigorous in its chilling insights and riveting in its fast-paced
' what if' dramatization, Atwood's superb novel is as brilliantly
provocative as it is profoundly engaging." -- "Booklist" (starred
review)
" Oryx and Crake is Atwood at her playful, allegorical best." --
"Globe and Mail
"
" [Oryx and Crake is written] with a style and grace that
demonstrate again just how masterful a storyteller she is. If one
measure of art's power is its ability to force you to face what you
would very much rather not, Oryx and Crake -- the evocative tale of
a nightmarish near-future -- is an extraordinary work of art, one
that reaffirms Atwood's place at the apex of Canadian literature."
-- "Maclean's
"" Atwood's new masterpiece.... Extraordinary.... [Atwood pulls]
back the curtain on her terrible vision with such tantalizing
precision, its fearsome implications don't fully reveal themselves
until the final pages.... A darkly comic work of speculative
fiction." -- "W Magazine "(U.S.)
" For all its artistic achievement, this novel poses serious
questions.... Margaret Atwood is a consummate artist, yes, but her
work also pricks our social and ethical consciousness. That is a
rare combination, an important achievement.... " -- "Globe and
Mail
"
" Atwood's great talent for narrative has never been displayed to
bettereffect." -- "Toronto Star
"
" Riveting.... Chesterton once wrote of the ' thousand romances
that lie secreted in The Origin of Species.' Atwood has extracted
one of the most hair-raising of them, and one of the most
brilliant." -- "Publishers Weekly
"" Oryx and Crake is Atwood at her best -- dark, dry, scabrously
witty, yet moving and studded with flashes of pure poetry. Her
gloriously inventive brave new world is all the more chilling
because of the mirror it holds up to our own. Citizens, be warned."
-- "The Independent" (U.K.)
" Oryx and Crake can hold its own against any of the 20th century's
most potent dystopias -- Brave New World," "1984, The Space
Merchants -- with regard to both dramatic impact and fertility of
invention.... Oryx and Crake showcases a nightmare version of the
present era of globalization on a globe coming apart at its
ecological seams.... It is a scathing (because bang-on) portrait of
the way we live now.... Majestic.... " -- "Washington Post
"
" Is there a more accomplished or versatile writer, in Canada, than
Margaret Atwood?... Atwood is on top of the times -- intuits them,
really.... The moral questions of Oryx and Crake are already in
play." -- "National Post" (profile)
" Oryx and Crake is a broad canvas that allows Atwood to show off
her brilliant talent for satire and wordplay, as well as her
considerable love and knowledge of the natural world." -- "Quill &
Quire
"
" Wonderfully vivid, and the sardonic unveiling of future history
makes for a strong narrative drive." -- "NationalPost
"
" Perfectly constructed, funny, and satiric. It is inventive yet
prophetic, in fact, apocalyptic and weirdly feasible.... It is
brilliant." -- "Winnipeg Free Press
"" Oryx and Crake" "is set just the other side of the evening news,
in a future so close we can smell its stench.... Atwood has outdone
herself here." -- "Georgia Straight
"" Contemporary novelists rarely write about science or technology.
Margaret Atwood tackles both -- and more -- in one of the year's
most surprising novels." -- "The Economist"
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