Book of Lives

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

The greatest writer of our time tells her own story. Immerse yourself in the creative universe of Margaret Atwood for a riot of life, art and everything in between

Raised by scientifically minded parents, 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 boldest imaginations.

'She's taken our times and made us wise to them' ALI SMITH
'She's Margaret Atwood and she can do anything' ANN PATCHETT
'She saw it all coming' TIME
'The outstanding novelist of our age' SUNDAY TIMES

© Margaret Atwood 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critics Review

Where most such backward looks are cosily triumphalist or anxiously self-justifying, hers is sharp, funny and engaging... nerdy brainiac, waifish poet, Medusa-eyed feminist, uncanny prophet and one of the great novelists of our time
Guardian
Displays the wit, intelligence and complexity that marks her best work... fat and satisfying... these glimpses of the mechanism? are fascinating
Observer
Just in time for Christmas, Atwood presents her readers with another outsize gift: a big fat juicy memoir, as compulsively readable as her best fiction... One of the most deliciously engaging memoirs of the decade, this brims over with life, wit and flashes of prophecy
Financial Times
Fiercely funny tales from a literary mafia don... as pacy and fascinating as any of her books... she is hilarious, with a poet's eye for detail and endless short, tart punchlines
Evening Standard
The Atwood on display here, as incisive as ever…is more emotive, her wit riper and more forgiving, as though she were recounting her life to old friends
Times Literary Supplement
Immensely readable... Atwood’s anecdotes and musings are so entertaining, and the fabric of her life, the foundations of her evidently resourceful, hard-working and fiercely funny character so interesting... it never particularly feels like the life of a famous person... The real Margaret Atwood is sentimental, blunt and deliciously naughty
iNews
Book of Lives, displays the wit, intelligence and complexity that marks her [Atwood’s] best work
Observer
A book with understated voltage
Independent
A remarkable read... successfully puts time in a bottle
LA Times
Book of Lives [is] immensely readable… Atwood’s anecdotes and musings are so entertaining, and the fabric of her life, the foundations of her evidently resourceful, hard-working and fiercely funny character so interesting, that this book is never plodding
i

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