Margaret Atwood (2000)
This book was a strange one to figure out at first–part period fiction, part pulp sci-fi story, with a twist of mystery thrown in–and I admit it took a while for me to get into it. It paid off in the end, with an interestingly constructed plot and fantastic writing. Atwood uses shifting time periods, newspaper articles and one woman’s recollection to tell the story of two sisters growing up and growing apart in Canada between the wars. A marriage of convenience, a radical rabble-rouser and the clandestine meetings of two fantasy story-spinning lovers all figure into the narrative, as told by an elderly woman who recognizes she doesn’t have much time to make amends with her past.
