The Heart Goes Last

Gloriously madcap You only pause in your laughter when you realise that, in its constituent parts, the world she depicts here is all too horribly plausible -- Stephanie Merritt * Observer * Her eye for the most unpredictable caprices of the human heart and her narrative fearlessness have made her one of the worlds most celebrated novelists -- Naomi Alderman * Guardian * The bestselling author who shot to fame 30 years ago with The Handmaids Tale is still at her darkly comic best * Sunday Times * Atwoods gift is to take whats already out there and nudge it to the next level The Heart Goes Last is all at once thrilling, funny, grim and shockingly convincing -- Erica Wagner * Harpers Bazaar * It is not a soothing read, although a compelling and darkly comic one serious and sinister, subtle and shrewd Atwoods mocking, cool, sceptical voice is as powerful as ever in this novel. When I read her, I hear those drawling, sardonic, amused tones as if she were in on some secret cosmic joke -- Jackie McGlone * Herald * Awfully good -- Hepzibah Anderson * Mail on Sunday * Atwood has many points to make about the monetising potential of sexual desire and the depersonalising impact of technology on human relationships, and she does so with tremendous gusto * Daily Mail * She is the undisputed queen of dystopian fiction and Margaret Atwoods latest offering is as deliciously disturbing as her dedicated fanbase could hope for **** -- Charlotte Heathcote * Daily Express * Few writers do gleeful droll quite as punchy as Atwood As savvy as ever -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times * What distinguishes Atwoods apocalypticism is her insistence that we have brought it on ourselves. Its not meteor strikes, or aliens that destroy our world. Its us I loved it -- John Sutherland * The Times * dazzling and hilarious -- Naomi Alderman * Spectator * You never lose the eerie feeling that each feature of this world could rematerialise in our own. Its what makes her fiction the opposite of the escapism of the geek genres. Its the lack of an escape route that shapes the predicaments of Atwoods characters. That and an imagination without equal * Evening Standard * Jubilant comedy of errors, bizarre bedroom farce, SF prison-break thriller, psychedelic sixties crime caper: The Heart Goes Last scampers in and out of all of these genres, pausing only to quote Milton on the loss of Eden or Shakespeare on weddings. Meanwhile, it performs a hard-eyed autopsy on themes of impersonation and self-impersonation, revealing so many layers of contemporary deception and self-deception that we dont know whether to laugh or cry * Guardian * Throughout her lengthy career, Margaret Atwood has challenged the way we think about the interactions between humans and technology, and explored the implications that might have on society Atwood addresses some neat ideas about how much control we really want over our own actions and minds * Independent on Sunday * Atwood has made a bestseller of pretty much everything shed turned her hand to. And The Heart Goes Last is no exception Sinister and darkly comic in equal measure, there are glimpses of Atwoods previous works The Handmaids Tale or the MaddAddam trilogy. But most poignantly, I really rooted for Charmaine and Stans relationship**** * Stylist * Frolicsome and gleeful A novel that seems to be about austerity and turns out to be about adultery; a dystopia with a strangely sour-sweet happy ending Compared to The Handmaids Tale or Alias Grace, this is far more hi-jinks in terms of gender and identity, but no less sharp-eyed or incisive ... Sheer fun, with a sharp edge * Scotland on Sunday * Darkly funny and tremendously thought-provoking, it is a joy to read We are in the hands of a consummate storyteller and the narrative threads tighten to a satisfying conclusion Margaret Atwood is expert at showing us that even if technology i

Margaret Atwood is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays. In addition to the classic The Handmaid's Tale, her novels include Cat's Eye, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin (winner of the 2000 Booker Prize), and the MaddAddam trilogy: Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood and MaddAddam. She is the winner of many awards, which, in addition to the Booker, include the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature, France's Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Italy's Premio Mondello and, in 2014, the Orion Book Award for Fiction. In 2012 she was awarded the title of Companion of Literature by The Royal Society of Literature. Margaret Atwood lives in Toronto, Canada. www.margaretatwood.ca @MargaretAtwood