This list focuses on ten of the best. some, like the tale of the handmaid and the blind murderer, are fairly well known within Canadian and world literature, while others like the heart comes last and surfacing are less so. Atwood is also known for her poetry collections, such as Dearly, and short story collections, such as Mattress of Stone and Bluebeard’s Egg.
The Handmaid’s Tale
No list of Margaret Atwood’s best novels would be complete with The Handmaid’s Tale. It is, without a doubt, her most famous book and the one that has brought her worldwide fame.
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The plot of The Handmaid’s Tale story centers on a female narrator known only by the name Ofred, given to her by the theocratic totalitarian government, Gilead, that has taken over the United States. ofred, and other women like her, who can still have children, are forced into sexual servitude as “servants”.
Throughout the novel, the reader learns, through flashbacks, what happened before the establishment of Gilead, Ofred’s lost husband and daughter. The book returned to the bestseller list after the 2016 US election and the creation of a Hulu television series. Ofred’s story has touched countless readers around the world.
oryx & crack
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oryx & Crake is the first book in Atwood’s Maddaddam series of three novels. This opening book, published in 2003, is speculative fiction like The Handmaid’s Tale. it also describes a dystopian world but one that has been met with an overwhelming environmental disaster. The novel focuses on Jimmy/Snowman, who is alone in this post-apocalyptic landscape with no one but the Crackers, a new genetically modified human race. the world is full of evidence of disasters as well as genetically altered creatures and products being used to power the economy. the next novels in the series are the year of the flood and maddaddam.
the thief bride
Published in 1993, The Thief Bride is set in present-day Toronto, Canada, and follows three main female characters. the novel uses flashbacks and various perspectives to tell the story of their romances, betrayals, and losses. each woman tells the story of zenia, another woman who stole her romantic partners. each story is different, and no image of zenia is impartial.
the blind assassin
The Blind Assassin is one of two books for which Atwood won the Man Booker Award. The novel was published in 2000 and, like many of her novels, is set in Canada. It focuses on two sisters, Iris and Laura. iris looks back on her life from the perspective of an older woman and reminisces about her childhood, youth and middle age. there is a secondary story within the first, creating a frame story. It is attributed to the other sister, Laura, and focuses on Alex Thomas, whose relationship with the two sisters is never fully defined.
the wills
The Wills is the second novel for which Atwood won the Man Booker Award. was published in 2019 and is the continuation of the handmaid’s tale. Instead of returning to the featured story, the novel focuses on several other characters and how they became who they are in The Handmaid’s Tale. This includes Aunt Lydia, one of the most unpleasant characters in the prequel. the sequel is officially set 15 years after the events of the first novel, but, as with the Handmaid’s Tale, flashbacks help flesh out the story.
alias grace
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Alias Grace is another of Atwood’s most popular novels. was published in 1996 and was shortlisted for the booker prize. It focuses on the 1843 murders of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery in the Canadian West. The two domestic servants, Grace Mark and James McDermott were convicted of the crimes. Grace received a life sentence and James was hanged. While the novel is based on these real-life events, Margaret Atwood turns them into fiction to add more to this story of Grace and his doctor, Simon Jordan, who comes to investigate criminal behavior. In recent years, the novel has been turned into a series on Netflix.
witch seed
hag-seed is one of margaret atwood’s most recent novels, published in 2016. it is a creative retelling of shakespeare’s tempest. The story centers on Felix, a theater director, who loses his job and gets a job in a prison teaching English. while he’s there, he decides to put together a new version of Tempest with the interns. Felix struggles with the loss of his daughter, finally coming to terms with it at the end of the novel and returning to his original position.
surface
Arise is one of Atwood’s earliest novels, published in 1972. It tells the story of a young woman who returns to Canada to search for her missing father. this sends her into a series of memories of hers regarding her youth, her childhood home, and her relationship with her father. she is accompanied by her partner, the poem and a marriage. as the book progresses, the protagonist slowly loses her grip on reality.
cat’s eye
Cat’s Eye was published in 1988 and tells the story of Elaine Risley. She, like the protagonists of other novels, investigates her past and spends time reflecting on her youth and adolescence. An important part of the novel focuses on her experiences as an eight-year-old girl with two friends, Carol and Grace. she goes back and forth between being confident and accepted by the young people around her and feeling like she’s an outsider living a life they don’t understand. the novel also discusses how her youth influenced her work as an artist.
heart goes last
Heart Goes Last was released in 2015 and centers on a near-future stranger and a couple, Charmaine and Stan. the two, while living in their car, decide to sign up for a social experiment that would give them their own house and job. the only drawback is that every two months they have to live in a prison cell. while in prison, an “alternative” comes to living in her house with her non-incarcerated partner. This eventually evolves until both Charmaine and Stan develop a relationship with their alternate partner. the novel is romantic, humorous and disturbing.
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