Book of Lives
A Memoir of Sorts
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4.9 • 9 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED A NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES AND THE WASHINGTON POST • How does the greatest writer of our time tell her own story?
"The most spectacular, hilarious, and generous autobiography of the last quarter century–or ever."—The Boston Globe
Raised by scientifically minded parents, Margaret Atwood spent most of each year in the wild forest of northern Quebec: 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 art—and the workings of one of our very greatest imaginations.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Margaret Atwood turns her authorial eye inward in this candid, insightful memoir. Perhaps best known for the acclaimed novel The Handmaid’s Tale, the Canadian author of more than 60 works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry embarks on a surprisingly ambitious project here, detailing her eight decades of life primarily through an examination of her work. From the early years that she often spent in the wilds of Canada’s forests with her entomologist father to her foundational work with other authors organizing a respected body of Canadian literature, Atwood recounts the many chapters of her story with eloquence, sharp intelligence, and no small measure of keen self-awareness. Not to mention a mischievous wit that can be refreshingly surprising if you’re mostly familiar with her dystopian works. “Every writer is at least two beings: the one who lives, and the one who writes,” she says, and in Book of Lives she intertwines the two in a way that’s beautiful and engrossing.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The remarkable debut memoir from Booker Prize winner Atwood (The Testaments) recounts pivotal moments in her personal life that shaped some of her most enduring work as a writer. Born in 1939 Ottawa, Atwood spent most of her childhood exploring the woods between Ontario and Quebec. After drafting her first poem at age six, she received encouragement from a secondary schoolteacher who taught her that "every writer is at least two beings: the one who lives, and the one who writes." For much of the book, Atwood attempts to bridge the gap between those two versions of herself, describing, for example, how her debut novel, The Edible Woman, sprang from her private interest in cake decorating, and how The Handmaid's Tale's vision of a "totalitarian theocracy" grew out of the political tensions she observed while living in Berlin in the 1980s. While Atwood focuses primarily on her creative development, she also renders with the skill of a master storyteller her feminist awakening, love of cooking, affinity for the occult, and slow-burn relationship with her husband. Luminous prose, a palpable lust for life, and an invaluable glimpse into the mind of a literary giant make this a must-read. Photos.
