The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood

I decided to have a break from my usual reading and try a new genre. And what a good move it was to read Margaret Atwood’s latest science fiction novel, The year of the flood.

It turned my conceptions that science fiction was a boy’s only genre full of robots, wooden writing and two dimensional female characters.

The year of the flood moves back and forth in a future where most of the world’s population has been destroyed by a virulent virus, the waterless flood. The novel is narrated by two female survivors, Toby and Ren.

Both were members of a fascinating religious group called God’s gardeners. Fascinating because they are a scientific, environmentally aware religion through which Margaret Atwood turns the current divide between religion and science on its head. Imagine a religion today supporting evolutionary theory and stating that belief in a literal 6 days of creation is “making nonsense of observable data”. And ‘unlike some other religions, we have never felt it served a higher purpose to lie to children about geology.” The book is filled with pithy sermons from the leader of God’s gardeners that continually confound our view of religion and nature.

It also has a dig at our predilection for sadistic reality style entertainment. Criminals are given the option of execution or Painball. This is where they enter an enclosed forest to fight a gladiatorial style fight to the death. Those that survive win their freedom. Naturally there are hidden cameras to capture all the blood and gore.

But as well as this the novel is well written. Her prose is so simple and lucid. A pleasure to read and she conveys her character’s plight and personalities so well. I found myself caring about Toby and Ren. It was one of the novels where I raced through because I couldn’t stand the suspense of discovering whether they survived the flood. Definitely recommended for people who are not regular sci-fi readers.

- Kaye

The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood