The essential Margaret Atwood reading list

Margaret Atwood books  - the best novels by Margaret Atwood 

The 10 best Margaret Atwood books

Best Margaret Atwood books: from ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ to ‘Alias Grace’ | The Independent

Margaret Atwood's 10 essential books | CBC Books

El Cuento de la Criada, Libro 1

Offred is a Handmaid living in a totalitarian regime, succeeding the United States. Handmaids are women assigned to bear children for elite couples with fertility issues. Offred's duty is to the Commander and his wife, Serena Joy, a previously renowned gospel singer. The Commander conducts a monthly ritual of attempting to impregnate Offred. Women's freedom in this society is heavily curtailed - they can only leave their houses for errands, their rooms cannot be fully enclosed, and a secret police force monitors their every move.

Offred often reverts to her past, revealing her previous life. She once had an affair with a man named Luke, who divorced his wife to marry her. They had a child together. A dramatic increase in violence against women, coupled with the prevalence of pornography and declining fertility rates due to pollution and chemical spills, led to a military coup. The new regime stripped women of their rights, leading to Offred and Luke attempting to flee with their daughter to Canada. They were separated, and Offred hasn't seen her family since. She was then sent to a re-education center to prepare her for her role as a Handmaid. 

Once assigned to the Commander's house, Offred's life becomes monotonous. Her routine is disturbed when her doctor offers to impregnate her, claiming the Commander might be sterile. She refuses, fearing the consequences. She later starts visiting the Commander in secret, playing forbidden games like Scrabble. Meanwhile, her shopping partner, Ofglen, reveals herself as a member of an underground rebellion. After Offred fails to conceive, Serena suggests she sleeps with their driver, Nick. Offred reluctantly agrees, leading to a clandestine affair. However, her quiet life is upended when she is rescued by members of the rebellion, leaving her uncertain about her future. The narrative concludes in 2195, with a lecture discussing Offred's story, which was found on cassette tapes, suggesting she may have escaped or been recaptured.

The Handmaid's Tale

El cuento de la criada

The Handmaid's Tale, Book 2

El cuento de la criada, libro 2

Three distinct voices come together to narrate the story, which revolves around their roles in a conspiracy to bring down the oppressive, patriarchal and theocratic government of a future nation. The first narrator, known as Aunt Lydia, is responsible for a manuscript titled "The Ardua Hall Holograph". The other two, Agnes and Daisy, provide their accounts through spoken testimonies. Aunt Lydia describes her rise to power in the harsh world of this dystopian society. Having previously been a judge, she is arrested and forced to watch as professional women are executed by the regime. Eventually, she is asked to cooperate with the regime and after a stint in solitary confinement, she concedes. She becomes one of the Founders of the Aunts, a group of women tasked with drafting and enforcing laws governing women. Using her position, she establishes an extensive surveillance system to gather evidence of wrongdoings by others.

Aunt Lydia's narrative intertwines with that of a child known as Baby Nicole, a child secretly taken out of this dystopian nation to Canada by her mother, a Handmaid. Aunt Lydia is keen on finding Baby Nicole, whose location is kept secret by a resistance group against the regime. Parallel to this, Agnes and Daisy, the other two narrators, share their experiences. Agnes, a native of the dystopian nation, has her comfortable life thrown into disarray when her mother dies and her father marries a vicious stepmother. She grows increasingly fearful of the treatment of women, a fear confirmed by witnessing the death of a Handmaid during childbirth. Encouraged by Aunt Lydia, Agnes seeks refuge among the Aunts and learns to read and write, becoming privy to top-secret information about the corruption among the nation's elite. Daisy, on the other hand, grows up in Toronto and after the death of her parents, learns from a mysterious woman, Ada, that she is the infamous Baby Nicole and her parents were just agents designated to protect her. 

The plot intensifies when Daisy's real identity is revealed and she's coerced into infiltrating the regime to retrieve top-secret documents meant to bring down the government. Daisy, disguised as a convert, manages to sneak into the oppressive nation and ends up at Ardua Hall with Agnes. There, Aunt Lydia discloses herself as the source of information, implants a document filled with evidence of corruption into Daisy's arm, and reveals to Agnes and Daisy that they are sisters. Together, they navigate their way out of the nation and back to Canada. The exposure of the documents sets in motion the downfall of the oppressive regime. The narrative concludes with a historian discussing these testimonies in a distant future.

The Testaments

Los Testamentos

A Novel

Una Novela

In 1859, Grace Marks, a woman serving a life sentence for her part in two murders, has been behaving well in the prison. This good behavior leads to terms of her imprisonment being softened, allowing her to work as a housekeeper in the Governor's household. The Governor's wife, along with a group of reformers including Reverend Verringer, are convinced of Grace's innocence and have tried multiple times to secure her pardon. Their efforts are rekindled when Dr. Simon Jordan, a doctor with an interest in psychology, arrives in Kingston to help Grace recover her lost memories of the murders.

Dr. Jordan believes that by restoring Grace's memories, he can not only ascertain her guilt or innocence but also gain valuable insights into the human mind. The two meet regularly in the sewing room of the Governor's house, where Grace is initially wary of Dr. Jordan and his unusual strategies for memory recovery. She eventually warms up to him and begins recounting her life story, leading up to the murders. The narrative thus alternates between the present and Grace's past, beginning with her childhood in Ireland, moving to Canada with her family, her mother's death, and her father's descent into alcoholism.

Grace's life takes a tragic turn when her friend and fellow servant, Mary Whitney, dies from a botched abortion. Seeking work, Grace ends up in a wealthier household, working alongside Nancy Montgomery and James McDermott. The tension between the servants escalates, culminating in McDermott murdering Nancy and their employer, Mr. Kinnear, while Grace's memory blanks out the details. As Dr. Jordan delves deeper into Grace's recollections, he becomes increasingly uncertain about her truthfulness and his own sanity. Eventually, he brings in Dr. DuPont to hypnotize Grace, leading to a bizarre confession from a voice claiming to be Mary Whitney. The voice absolves Grace of the murders, leaving Dr. Jordan more confused than ever. Grace eventually secures a pardon after thirteen more years in prison, travels to the US, marries an old acquaintance, and lives on, sewing pieces of her past into a quilt.

Alias Grace

In the later years of her life, residing in the small town of Port Ticonderoga in Ontario, Iris Chase Griffen pens a memoir reflecting on her life and tracing her family history. Iris, in her eighties, is the last remaining member of her family, having outlived her sister Laura, her husband Richard, and her daughter Aimee. She does have a granddaughter, Sabrina, though their relationship is distant. Iris's narrative oscillates between her present-day experiences as an elderly woman and the recollections of her childhood and early life.

Iris's memoir encompasses excerpts from a novel published posthumously under her late sister Laura's name, believed by many to be a result of Laura's tragic death in a car accident in 1945, presumed by many to be suicide. The novel recounts illicit encounters between a wealthy woman and an unnamed man, a fugitive of sorts, who regales his lover with tales of a distant planet named Zycron. The narratives suggest that Laura might have been involved in a secret affair with a man of lower social standing with radical political beliefs. 

Born into a prosperous family, Iris and Laura's lives become convoluted as they navigate through the Great Depression, unfulfilling marriages, and political unrest. Iris is coerced into marrying Richard Griffen - a cold, aloof tycoon - to save their family business. But their marriage is unhappy, dominated by Richard's sister, Winifred. A series of tragedies and cover-ups ensue, including Laura's pregnancy and subsequent institutionalization, leading to an abortion to avoid scandal. Iris is left to unravel these dark secrets, eventually revealing her own involvement with Laura's novel and her affair with the man believed to be Laura's lover. As Iris's life draws to an end, she discloses her full story, intending to enlighten Sabrina about their family history.

The Blind Assassin

La Asesina Ciega

Renowned artist Elaine Risley revisits her childhood city of Toronto for an art show, prompting her to reminisce about her past. As a child, her family had to move frequently due to her father's work as an entomologist. Upon settling in Toronto when she's eight, Elaine grapples with the complexities of female friendships and the unspoken rules of girlhood. She befriends three girls: Carol, Grace, and Cordelia, who eventually becomes a tormentor rather than a friend. The bullying intensifies when Cordelia throws Elaine's hat into a ravine, causing Elaine to nearly freeze in the icy river while retrieving it. A hallucination of the Virgin Mary helps her gather the will to leave the ravine and, upon returning to school, she dismisses Cordelia's provocations, making new friends, and suppressing those traumatic memories.

Elaine and Cordelia go to the same high school where Elaine flourishes and Cordelia falters. Elaine becomes an achiever with a mean streak, shunning Cordelia who leaves school for failing too many subjects. Elaine pursues her passion for art, taking classes while in university, and starts relationships with her teacher and classmate, Jon. When Cordelia reappears, seeming more stable and successful, Elaine feels a pang of envy and decides to cut Cordelia off for good. Elaine later chooses Jon, marries him after getting pregnant, and continues to paint. She connects with a group of women artists who showcase her work, inadvertently kickstarting her career. Cordelia's suicide attempt and plea for help falls on deaf ears as Elaine focuses on her deteriorating relationship, resulting in her moving to Vancouver and marrying Ben.

In present times, Elaine roams Toronto, feeling displaced by its transformation. Her art exhibition brings forth old emotions, especially her resentment towards Cordelia who doesn't show up at the event. The disappointment leads Elaine to revisit the ravine from her childhood, where she imagines seeing a young Cordelia. She acknowledges their shared feelings of fear and loneliness, offering her childhood tormentor the same advice she received years ago - to go home. Her journey ends with a beautiful moment of witnessing elderly women playing cards during her flight, making Elaine miss an old age she would never experience with Cordelia.

13 Best Margaret Atwood Books of All Time

The Handmaid's Tale

The Testaments

The Handmaid's Tale, Book 2

Alias Grace

A Novel

Alias Grace

A Novel

The Blind Assassin

A Novel

Cat's Eye

The Edible Woman

Oryx and Crake

MaddAddam, Book 1

Hag-Seed

Hogarth Shakespeare, Book 4

The Robber Bride

Life Before Man

Bodily Harm

Bluebeard's Egg

Stories

Sources

What To Read Next

13 Best Margaret Atwood Books of All Time

The Handmaid's Tale

The Testaments

The Handmaid's Tale, Book 2

Alias Grace

A Novel

Alias Grace

A Novel

The Blind Assassin

A Novel

Cat's Eye

The Edible Woman

Oryx and Crake

MaddAddam, Book 1

Hag-Seed

Hogarth Shakespeare, Book 4

The Robber Bride

Life Before Man

Bodily Harm

Bluebeard's Egg

Stories

Sources

What To Read Next

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