It’s a question that Margaret Atwood dismisses as unanswerable. What, you have asked her, does she hope readers take away from her latest endeavour, Book of Lives?

“Every reader is different,” she says. “So I have no idea what they’ll take away from this book. It’s going to be up to them. You just never know. Once the book is out of your hands, you have no control over it and your guess is a good as mine.”

It’s a characteristically crisp, no-nonsense response from a writer who has always spoken her mind. Nevertheless, we can make one safe guess: fans of The Handmaid’s Tale will eat up those pages dealing with the troubled genesis of her most famous novel.

Book of Lives is a formidable addition to an eclectic Atwood catalogue that has now passed the 50-volume mark. And there’s warmth and

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