The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

The Blind Assassin by Margaret AtwoodWinner of the Man Booker PrizeBy the author of The Handmaid's Tale and Alias GraceLaura Chase's older sister Iris, married at eighteen to a politically prominent industrialist but now poor and eighty two, is living in Port Ticonderoga, a town dominated by their once prosperous family before the First War. While coping with her unreliable body, Iris reflects on her far from exemplary life, in particular the events surrounding her sister's tragic death.

about childlessness

Only they can save each other

And anyway

they indicate significant variants and help explain obscure turns of phrase and allusions (frequently sourced to Beckett's notebooks)

and the global reach of the Irish diaspora

Simone de Beauvoir tells the story of Monique

Its mission: to seize a bridgehead in Queen Elizabeth's territory and hold it

it is the go-to publication for the unexplained and inexplicable

'Theirs not to reason why'

With his usual mix of erudition and where-the-f*ck-did-that-come-from humor

And both will have their revenge

What follows is a dazzling and profoundly moving conversation about what makes us human