‘Every writer is at least two beings: the
one who lives, and the one who writes. Though everything written must
have passed through their minds, or mind, they are not the same.’
Raised
by ruggedly independent, scientifically minded parents – entomologist
father, dietician mother – Atwood spent most of each year in the wild
forest of northern Quebec. This childhood was unfettered and nomadic,
sometimes isolated (on her eighth birthday: ''It sounds forlorn. It was
forlorn. It gets more forlorn.’), but also thrilling and beautiful.
From
this unconventional start, Atwood unfolds the story of her life,
linking seminal moments to the books that have shaped our literary
landscape, from the cruel year that spawned Cat’s Eye to divided 1980s Berlin where she began The Handmaid’s Tale.
In pages bursting with bohemian gatherings, her magical life with the
wildly charismatic writer Graeme Gibson and major political turning
points, we meet poets, bears, Hollywood actors and larger-than-life
characters straight from the pages of an Atwood novel.
As we
travel with her along the course of her life, more and more is revealed
about her writing, the connections between real life and art – and the
workings of one of our greatest imaginations.
