Synopsis
Pursuing the portrait of an apocalyptic near-future that she initiated in ORYX AND CRAKE--a future ravaged by alarmingly familiar excessive ways--Margaret Atwood tells a story as complex and prescient as she did with her masterwork THE HANDMAID'S TALE. Faced with extensive environmental destruction, the disturbing byproducts of rampant bioengineering, and plagues that constantly threaten--some people have left the fold of traditional society (or what's left of it) and have chosen to live in the "pleeblands" (this world's ghetto). And some have turned to religion for solace and guidance. Adam One is the influential leader of a fundamentalist Christian sect with a strong environmental message, and Atwood's story focuses in on two members of the God's Gardeners, Toby and Ren. Readers familiar with ORYX AND CRAKE will find Atwood more optimistic here and will certainly be enthralled by how she has fleshed out her world. New readers need not shy away--this book stands on its own. As the best speculative fiction does, YEAR OF THE FLOOD presents a time and place excitingly new and different from our own, while addressing in very real ways the challenges confronting the here and now.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2009-09-22 |
| Size | | Length: | 434 pages | | Height: | 9.5 in | | Width: | 6.5 in | | Thickness: | 1.5 in | | Weight: | 26.4 oz |
Publisher's Note
When a natural disaster predicted by God's Gardeners leader Adam One obliterates most human life, two survivors trapped inside respective establishments that metaphorically represent paradise and hell wonder if any of their loved ones have survived, while the outside world is overcome by gene-spliced life forms.
Industry Reviews
"Atwood's villains are despicable, while her heroes are thorny, resilient, and contemplative, and their adventures are hair-raising....Atwood's mischievous, suspenseful, and sagacious dystopian novel follows the trajectory of current environmental debacles to a shattering possible conclusion with passionate concern and arch humor." (starred review)
(07/01/2009)
"This is a gutsy and expansive novel, rich with ideas and conceits...." (starred review)
(07/20/2009)
"[Atwood] enchants us so convincingly that after her spell is over, the "real" world seems temporarily transformed. THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD is both a warning and a gift."
(09/10/2009)
"FLOOD's relentlessly fabulous inventions and despondent predictions become almost unbearable, espeically told in such gorgeously trenchant prose."
(09/17/2009)
"Atwood knows how to show us ourselves, but the mirror she holds up to life does more than reflect--it's like one of those mirrors made with mercury that gives us both a deepening and a distorting effect, allowing both the depths of human nature and its potential mutations."
(09/20/2009)
"Canada's greatest living novelist undoubtedly knows how to tell a gripping story, as fans of THE BLIND ASSASSIN and THE HANDMAID'S TALE already know. But here there's a serious message, too: Look at what we're doing right now to our world, to nature, to ourselves. If this goes on..."
(09/24/2009)
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