The Year of the Flood

Zusatztext [Written with] energy, inventiveness, and narrative panache. . . . A gripping and visceral book that showcases [Atwood's] pure storytelling talents. Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times [ The Year of the Flood ] shows the Nobel Prize-worthy Atwood . . . at the pinnacle of her prodigious creative powers. Elle A heart-pounding thriller. The Washington Post Book World Leave it to Atwood to find humor in a post-apocalyptic world as she covertly, and brilliantly, addresses questions of how we need to live on an imperiled planet. Kansas City Star Atwood is funny and clever, such a good writer and real thinker. . . . The Year of the Flood isn't prophecy, but it is eerily possible. The New York Times Book Review Timely and gripping. . . . Atwood tells a good story, one filled with suspense and even levity. USA Today Enthralling. . . . Memorable characters, a tightly controlled pace and shockingly plausible scenes make it flyto a mysterious, skin-prickling ending. San Francisco Chronicle Atwood renders this civilization and these two lives within it with tenderness and insight, a healthy dread, and a guarded humor. O, the Oprah Magazine Atwood spins the most arresting alternate mythologies to our hell-bent world. . . . The Year of the Flood is a slap-happy romp through the end times. Stuffed with cornball hymns, genetic mutations worth of Thomas Pynchon and a pharmaceutical company run amok, it reads like dystopia verging on satire. She may be imagining a world in flames, but she's doing it with a dark cackle. The Los Angeles Times Thought-provoking, beautifully constructed, and rich with the imaginative flourishes for which [Atwood] is rightly famous. . . . A hugely entertaining and satisfying read. The Irish Independent Prodigiously imaginative and outrageously funny. . . . Atwood's wit is biting. . . . Her brilliance dazzles. The Plain Dealer Heart-pounding, mysterious and surprisingly touching. . . . She 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. Jane Ciabattari, Books We Like, NPR.org Atwood is a wry wizard at world-building. . . . Fans . . . should grab a biohazard suit, crawl into a hermetically sealed fallout shelter, and dive right in. The Christian Science Monitor Funny. . . . Entertaining. . . . You fall into her intensely inventive world and find yourself carried happily along. Anthony Doerr, Orion Magazine Atwood scores a 10. Philadelphia Inquirer Atwood's latest is a fiercely imagined tale of suffering that rivals Job's. . . . As dark as Atwood's vision may be, the bonds among her women give her work a bittersweet power. People Richly imagined. . . . Thought-provoking, unexpectedly funny and utterly original. The Denver Post Engrossing and suspenseful. The New York Review of Books Riveting. . . . Cunning, droll. . . . The intensity of her apocalyptic fantasy doesn't prevent Atwood from giving free rein to her peppery and inventive humor. . . . So she courts us with her puckish wit, holds us spellbound with suspense, and then confronts us with harrowing and tragic scenarios. The Kansas City Star Atwood's language remains as juicy and colorful as ever. . . . [She] allows her imagination to roam rudely, widely, and vigorously where lesser minds fear to tread. Barnes & Noble Review Vintage Atwood: It's artfully edgy, casting a pitiless eye on her fellow creatures. . . . A powerful indictment of the way human beings have long treated the planet and themselves. . . . The book takes big risks....

Auteur

Margaret Atwood is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays. Her novels include Cat’s Eye, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, and the MaddAddam trilogy. Her 1985 classic, The Handmaid’s Tale, was followed in 2019 by a sequel, The Testaments, which was a global number one bestseller and won the Booker Prize. In 2020 she published Dearly, her first collection of poetry for a decade.
 
Atwood has won numerous awards including the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to literature. She has also worked as a cartoonist, illustrator, librettist, playwright and puppeteer. She lives in Toronto, Canada.

Texte du rabat

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale

Set in the visionary future of Atwood's acclaimed Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood is at once a moving tale of lasting friendship and a landmark work of speculative fiction. In this second book of the MaddAddam trilogy, the long-feared waterless flood has occurred, altering Earth as we know it and obliterating most human life. Among the survivors are Ren, a young trapeze dancer locked inside the high-end sex club Scales and Tails, and Toby, who is barricaded inside a luxurious spa. Amid shadowy, corrupt ruling powers and new, gene-spliced life forms, Ren and Toby will have to decide on their next move, but they can't stay locked away.

Résumé
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments—*the second book of the internationally celebrated MaddAddam trilogy, set in the visionary world of *Oryx and Crake, is at once a moving tale of lasting friendship and a landmark work of speculative fiction.

The long-feared waterless flood has occurred, altering Earth as we know it and obliterating most human life. Among the survivors are Ren, a young trapeze dancer locked inside the high-end sex club Scales and Tails, and Toby, who is barricaded inside a luxurious spa. Amid shadowy, corrupt ruling powers and new, gene-spliced life forms, Ren and Toby will have to decide on their next move, but they can't stay locked away.

Échantillon de lecture
1Toby. Year Twenty-five,  the Year of the Flood.

In the early morning Toby climbs up to the rooftop to watch the sunrise. She uses a mop handle for balance: the elevator stopped working some time ago and the back stairs are slick with damp, so if she slips and topples there won't be anyone to pick her up. As the first heat hits, mist rises from among the swathe of trees between her and the derelict city. The air smells faintly of burning, a smell of caramel and tar and rancid barbecues, and the ashy but greasy smell of a garbage-dump fire after it's been raining. The abandoned towers in the distance are like the coral of an ancient reef--bleached and colourless, devoid of life. There still is life, however. Birds chirp; sparrows, they must be. Their small voices are clear and sharp, nails on glass: there's no longer any sound of traffic to drown them out. Do they notice that quietness, the absence of motors? If so, are they happier? Toby has no idea. Unlike some of the other Gardeners--the more wild-eyed or possibly overdosed ones--she has never been under the illusion that she can converse with birds. The sun brightens in the east, reddening the blue-grey haze that marks the distant ocean. The vultures roosting on hydro poles fan out their wings to dry them, opening themselves like black umbrellas. One and then another lifts off on the thermals and spirals upwards. If they plummet suddenly, it means they've spotted carrion. Vultures are our friends, the Gardeners used to teach. They purify the earth. They are God's necessary dark Angels of bodily dissolution. Imagine how terrible it would be if there were no death!Do I still believe this? Toby wonders. Everything is different up close.

The rooftop has some planters, their ornamental running wild; it has a few fake-wood benches. It used to have a sun canopy for cocktail hour, but that's been blown away. Toby…