Meet the remarkable MARGARET ATWOOD and chat about her award-winning novels, including THE HEART GOES LAST, in November's Bookclub, Wednesday 4 November, 9-10pm

[TillyMumsnetBookClub]

Over her exceptional career, spanning forty books and almost fifty years, Margaret Atwood has returned to themes of totalitarianism, environmental destruction, sexual politics and economic failure. She always takes on these monsters with a piercing intelligence, and a wit that makes the pages sing. Her latest novel, The Heart Goes Last, is set in a future world that is ruined, lawless and based on greed. Stan and Charmaine used to have a fairly regular life, but now they are forced to live in their car, existing on scraps and cheap doughnuts. When they see an advert for the Positron Project, offering a job and a home, they desperately sign up, despite a gut feeling that this might not be the paradise that is promised. Still, all they have to do is give up their freedom once a month and spend a bit of time in a prison cell. How bad can that be? The plot becomes increasingly circus-like, involving Elvis sex-bots, eugenics, mind-control and some strange knitted teddies, but the remarkable truth is that it all seems entirely possible.

Margaret Atwood has written volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is known across the globe for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin (2000) and the MaddAddam trilogy. Find out more at our book of the month page.

You'll also find a huge range of reviews, videos and information on Atwood's excellent website or follow her very active Twitter feed.

Bloomsbury have 50 hardbacks of The Heart Goes Last to give to Mumsnetters: to claim your copy please fill in your details on the book of the month page. We’ll post on the thread when all the copies have gone. If you’re not lucky enough to bag one of those, you can always get a Kindle version here or hardback here.

We are honoured and delighted that Margaret Atwood will be joining us on 4th November 9-10pm to discuss The Heart Goes Last, her many award-winning works and her writing life. Please feel free to discuss the book here throughout the month and then come and meet Margaret on the night, ask her a question or simply tell her what you think of her books. Look forward to seeing you there!

I am so honoured I will never wash my typing fingers again! Thanks so much Margaret.

Goodbye everyone... Lovely chatting, sorry I couldn't do all the questions...

Margaret

Bookclub hour always goes too fast - great questions and answers as usual

I can't quite believe that I've 'talked' with Meryl Streep and Margaret Atwood in the space of one month

I'm quite hysterical with joy. The cat's livid because it hasn't been fed & is giving me the stink eye, who cares.

Are all the book copies gone? The form is not letting me register.

I missed this web chat by virtue of having given birth that morning! That also meant that I've finished the book over middle of the night feeds, so from a practical point of view I've appreciated it being broken into relatively small chunks so easy to pick up and put down.

Having said that, I could've read it in one sitting. It's a long time (20 years probably) since I've read any Atwood - I loved the Handmaid's Tale but struggled through a couple of others and haven't tried again since. This will no doubt change - I might put some on my Christmas list.

I really enjoyed The Heart Goes Last - like all good dystopian fiction it works because it is (for the most part) oh so plausible. The idea that someone would respond to society descending into lawlessness by making everyone spend half their life in prison in return for decent housing and employment for the other half, sounds like something some of our politicians might come up with.

I was left particularly pondering the question about whether you can make someone love someone else, and the impact on the beloved if that were possible. So if you could reprogram me someone to only love their spouse (or whoever), how in the long term would the spouse respond to that, and what happens to the reprogrammed one when their beloved has had enough and strays?

And as for the blue teddy bears....

PS Thank you MN for the book!