The Blind Assassin : A Novel

The Blind Assassin opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge." "Boldly imagined and brilliantly executed." - Kirkus ReviewsThese words are spoken by Iris Chase Griffen, married at eighteen to a wealthy industrialist but now poor and eighty-two. Iris recalls her far-from-exemplary life, and the events leading up to her sister’s death, gradually revealing the carefully guarded Chase family secrets. Among these is The Blind Assassin, a novel that earned the dead Laura Chase not only notoriety but also a devoted cult following. Sexually explicit for its time, it was a pulp fantasy improvised by two unnamed lovers who meet secretly in rented rooms and seedy cafés. As this novel-within-a-novel twists and turns through love and jealousy, self-sacrifice and betrayal, so does the real narrative, as both move closer to war and catastrophe. "Atwood has never written with more flair and versatility than in this multidimensional novel. Adding sardonic wit and characterisation that takes you into the ambivalent intricacies of a personality, this is a novel of extraordinary variety and reach. A brilliant accomplishment." - Peter Kemp, Sunday Times"This is a dark masterpiece in which tension comes from the sharp juxtaposition of worlds and in which futuristic fantasy interrupts and reflects a disquieting reality." - Karen Houppert, SalonMargaret Atwood’s Booker Prize-winning sensation combines elements of gothic drama, romantic suspense, and science fiction fantasy in a spellbinding tale. Told In The Story Within A Story Fashion, The Reader Learns About The Mysterious Death Of One Sister From Her Surviving Sister. The Bridge -- The Toronto Star, 1945 -- The Blind Assassin : Perennials For The Rock Garden -- The Hard-boiled Egg -- The Globe And Mail -- The Park Bench -- The Toronto Star, 1975 -- The Carpets -- The Globe And Mail -- The Lipstick Heart -- The Colonel Henry Parkman High School Home And School And Alumni Association Bulletin, 1998 -- The Presentation -- The Silver Box -- The Button Factory -- Avilion -- The Trousseau -- The Gramaphone -- Bread Day -- Black Ribbons -- The Soda -- The Cafe -- The Port Ticonderoga Herald And Banner, 1933 -- The Chenille Spread -- The Mail And Empire, 1934 -- The Messenger -- The Mail And Empire, 1934 -- Horses Of The Night -- Mayfair, 1935 -- The Bronze Bell -- The Fur Coat -- The Weary Soldier -- Miss Violence -- Ovid's Metamorphoses -- The Button Factory Picnic -- Loaf Givers -- Hand-tinting -- The Cold Cellar -- The Attic -- The Imperial Room -- The Arcadian Court -- The Tango -- The Houndstooth Suit -- Red Brocade -- The Toronto Star, 1935 -- Street Walk -- The Janitor -- Mayfair, 1936 -- Alien On Ice -- The Steamer Trunk -- The Fire Pit -- Postcards From Europe -- The Eggshell Hat -- Besotted -- Sunnyside -- Xanadu -- Carnivore Stories -- Mayfair, 1936 -- Peach Women Of Aa'a -- The Mail And Empire, 1936 -- The Top Hat Grill -- The Laundry -- The Ashtray -- The Man With His Head On Fire -- The Water Nixie -- The Chestnut Tree -- Lizard Men Of Xenor -- Mayfair, 1937 -- Letter From Bellavista -- The Tower -- The Globe And Mail, 1937 -- Union Station -- The Cubicle -- The Kitten -- Beautiful View -- Brightly Shone The Moon -- Betty's Lunchonette -- The Message -- The Globe And Mail, 1938 -- Mayfair, 1939 -- The Be Rage Room -- Yellow Curtains -- The Telegram -- The Destruction Of Sakiel-norn -- Gloves -- Home Fires -- Diana Sweets -- Escarpment -- The Golden Lock -- Victory Comes And Goes -- The Heap Of Rubble -- The Blind Assassin, Epilogue : The Other Hand -- The Port Ticonderoga Herald And Banner, 1999 -- The Threshold. Margaret Atwood. Originally Published By Nan A. Talese ... In 2000--t.p. Verso. Winner Of The Booker Prize, 2000.

Margaret Atwood takes the art of storytelling to new heights in a dazzling new novel that unfolds layer by astonishing layer and concludes in a brilliant and wonderfully satisfying twist.

For the past twenty-five years, Margaret Atwood has written works of striking originality and imagination. In The Blind Assassin, she stretches the limits of her accomplishments as never before, creating a novel that is entertaining and profoundly serious.

The novel opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a- novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist.

Told in a style that magnificently captures the colloquialisms and clichés of the 1930s and 1940s, The Blind Assassin is a richly layered and uniquely rewarding experience. The novel has many threads and a series of events that follow one another at a breathtaking pace. As everything comes together, readers will discover that the story Atwood is telling is not only what it seems to be—but, in fact, much more.

The Blind Assassin proves once again that Atwood is one of the most talented, daring, and exciting writers of our time. Like The Handmaid's Tale, it is destined to become a classic.

Bust Magazine

Read the book as storytelling of the highest order. Or, if you choose, watch for "Atwood themes"—there's plenty of feminist stuff, political observations, and philosophical questioning of life events both grand and mundane.

Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge. Thus begins The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood's Booker Prize-winning novel. Laura 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. Chief among these was the publication of The Blind Assassin, a novel which earned the dead Laura Chase not only notoriety but also a devoted cult following: as Iris says, she herself lives 'in the long shadow cast by Laura'. Sexually explicit for its time, The Blind Assassin describes a risky affair in the turbulent thirties between a wealthy young woman and a man on the run. During their secret meetings in rented rooms, the lovers concoct a pulp fantasy set on the Planet Zycron. As the invented story twists through love and sacrifice and betrayal, so does the real one, as events in both move closer to war and catastrophe. By turns lyrical, outrageous, formidable, compelling and funny, this is a novel filled with deep humour and dark drama. It is Margaret Atwood at her breathtaking best Laura 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. Chief among these was the publication of The Blind Assassin, a novel which earned the dead Laura Chase not only notoriety but also a devoted cult following. Sexually explicit for its time, The Blind Assassin describes a risky affair in the turbulent thirties between a wealthy young woman and a man on the run. During their secret meetings in rented rooms, the lovers concoct a pulp fantasy set on Planet Zycron. As the invented story twists through love and sacrifice and betrayal, so does the real one; while events in both move closer to war and catastrophe. By turns lyrical, outrageous, formidable, compelling and funny, this is a novel filled with deep humour and dark drama The bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments weaves together strands of gothic suspense, romance, and science fiction into one utterly spellbinding narrative, beginning with the mysterious death of a young woman named Laura Chase in 1945. Decades later, Laura's sister Iris recounts her memories of their childhood, and of the dramatic deaths that have punctuated their wealthy, eccentric family's history. Intertwined with Iris's account are chapters from the scandalous novel that made Laura famous, in which two illicit lovers amuse each other by spinning a tale of a blind killer on a distant planet. These richly layered stories-within-stories gradually illuminate the secrets that have long haunted the Chase family, coming together in a brilliant and astonishing final twist. "The novel opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist."--BOOK JACKET. More than fifty years on, Iris Chase is remembering Laura's mysterious death. And so begins an extraordinary and compelling story of two sisters and their secrets. Set against a panoramic backdrop of twentieth-century history, The Blind Assassin is an epic tale of memory, intrigue and betrayal... Even now, at the age of 82, Iris lives in the shadow cast by her younger sister Laura. Now poor and trying to cope with a failing body, Iris reflects on her far from exemplary life, in particular the events surrounding her sister's tragic death and the novel which earned her such notoriety Iris describes the 1945 death of her sister, who drives her car off a bridge, followed, two years later, by the death of her husband, in a story that features a novel-within-a-novel about two unnamed lovers who meet in a dark backstreet room. A science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in a dingy backstreet room. Set in a multi-layered story of the death of a woman's sister and husband in the 1940's, with a novel-within-a novel as a background Seven special editions of Margaret Atwood's finest novels, published to celebrate her 70th birthday