The Heart Goes Last - Hardcover

Atwood, Margaret Eleanor

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0771009119 ISBN 13: 9780771009112

Publisher: Mcclelland & Stewart Ltd, 2015

Synopsis

Imagining a world where citizens take turns as prisoners and jailers, the prophetic Margaret Atwood delivers a hilarious yet harrowing tale about liberty, power, and the irrepressibility of the human appetite.

     Several years after the world's brutal economic collapse, Stan and Charmaine, a married couple struggling to stay afloat, hear about the Positron Project in the town of Consilience, an experiment in cooperative living that appears to be the answer to their problems - to living in their car, to the lousy jobs, to the vandalism and the gangs, to their piled-up debt. There's just one drawback: once inside Consilience, you don't get out. After weighing their limited options, Stan and Charmaine sign up, and soon they find themselves involved in the town's strategy for economic stability: a pervasive prison system, whereby each citizen lives a double life, as a prisoner one month, and a guard or town functionary the next. At first, Stan and Charmaine enjoy their newfound prosperity. But when Charmaine becomes romantically involved with the man who shares her civilian house, her actions set off an unexpected chain of events that leave Stan running for his life. Brilliant, dark, and provocative, The Heart Goes Last is a compelling futuristic vision that will drive readers to the edge of their seats.

About this title

Review:

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 world's most celebrated novelists (Naomi Alderman Guardian)

The bestselling author who shot to fame 30 years ago with The Handmaid's Tale is still at her darkly comic best (Sunday Times)

Atwood's gift is to take what's 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 Harper’s Bazaar)

It is not a soothing read, although a compelling and darkly comic one - serious and sinister, subtle and shrewd . Atwood's 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 2015-09-12)

Awfully good (Hepzibah Anderson Mail on Sunday 2015-09-13)

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 2015-09-18)

She is the undisputed queen of dystopian fiction and Margaret Atwood's latest offering is as deliciously disturbing as her dedicated fanbase could hope for **** (Charlotte Heathcote Daily Express 2015-09-18)

Few writers do gleeful droll quite as punchy as Atwood . As savvy as ever (Eileen Battersby Irish Times 2015-09-18)

What distinguishes Atwood's apocalypticism is her insistence that we have brought it on ourselves. It's not meteor strikes, or aliens that destroy our world. It's us . I loved it (John Sutherland The Times 2015-09-19)

Book Description:

A sinister, wickedly funny and deeply disturbing novel about a near future in which the lawful are locked up and the lawless roam free

About this edition

• Publisher: Mcclelland & Stewart Ltd
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0771009119
• ISBN 13: 9780771009112
• Binding: Hardcover