Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa, Canada on November 18, 1939. Atwood is a poet, science fiction writer, novelist, literary critic and environmental activist. She has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize on five occasions. Atwood won the Booker prize in 2000 with The Blind Assassin. In 1987, Atwood was named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association. The Handmaid's Tale won the first Arthur C Clarke Award in 1987, although Atwood would rather call her book 'speculative fiction'. She argues that the difference between science fiction and speculative fiction is that 'science fiction has monsters and spaceships, speculative fiction could really happen'. Philip K Dick would go further and say that science fiction is about things that 'could happen' and that 'monsters etc' could be consigned to adventure stories. Miriam Allen deFord puts it succinctly when she says "Science Fiction deals with improbable possibilities, fantasy with plausible impossibilities". Atwood has compiled the New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse in English (1983). Margaret Atwood has received many honorary degrees including Doctor of Literature from the National University of Ireland, Galway, the Royal Military College of Canada, as well as Oxford University, Cambridge University and the Sorbonne.
Book Review:The dual worlds of magic and science are threatened by a terrifying species of beings. Only two special children- Nepe and Flach, will dare to fight back, by befriending the enemy.
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Book Review:Offred is allowed only one function to breed. If she strays outside the law she will be hanged or left out to die of radiation sickness. But she is desireous of difference and is willing to take the chance.
Book Review:Two couples who are intertwined in more ways than they would like are going through problems.
Book Review:Elaine Risley returns to Toronto to find herself overwhelmed by her past. Memories of her childhood resurface unrelentlessly forcing her to confront her adversaries.