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Book of Lives
A Memoir of Sorts
Brief Description
The life and times of one of the most important writers of our time, from her peripatetic childhood in the Canadian far north, through the writing of The Handmaid's Tale, to her position today as a revered truth-teller and literary icon. How does the greatest writer...
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Book of Lives
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Description
The life and times of one of the most important writers of our time, from her peripatetic childhood in the Canadian far north, through the writing of The Handmaid's Tale, to her position today as a revered truth-teller and literary icon.
How does the greatest writer of our time tell her own story? Immerse yourself in the creative universe of Margaret Atwood for a riot of life, artβand everything in between.
Every writer is at least two beings: the one who lives, and the one who writes.
Raised by scientifically minded parents, Atwood spent most of each year in the wild forest of northern Quebecβ a vast playground for her entomologist father and independent, resourceful mother. It was an unfettered and nomadic childhood, sometimes isolated but also thrilling and beautiful.
From this unconventional start, Atwood unfolds the story of her life, linking key moments to the books that have shaped our literary landscape, from the cruel school year that would become Cat's Eye to the unease of 1980s Berlin, where she began The Handmaid's Tale. In pages alive with the natural world, reading and books, major political turning points, and her lifelong love for the charismatic writer Graeme Gibson, we meet poets, bears, Hollywood stars, and larger-than-life characters straight from the pages of an Atwood novel.
As she explores her past, Atwood reveals more and more about her writing, the connections between real life and artβand the workings of one of our greatest imaginations.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781784744496
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 04 November 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Chatto & Windus
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 40.0mm
Width: 156.0mm
Height: 240.0mm
Weight: 750g
Pages: 752
About the Author
Margaret Atwood is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays. Her novels include Cat's Eye, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin and the MaddAddam trilogy. Her 1985 classic, The Handmaid's Tale, was followed in 2019 by a sequel, The Testaments, which was a global number one bestseller and shared the Booker Prize. Her most recent publications are the poetry collections Dearly and Paper Boat; Burning Questions, a selection of essays; and Old Babes in the Wood, a volume of short stories. Atwood is a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, and has won numerous awards including the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. She has also worked as a cartoonist, illustrator, librettist, playwright and puppeteer. She lives in Toronto, Canada.
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