The Year of the Flood
The long-awaited new novel from Margaret Atwood. The Year of the Flood is a dystopic masterpiece and a testament to her visionary power. The times and species have been changing at a rapid rate, and the social compact is wearing as thin as environmental stability. Adam One, the kindly leader of the God's Gardeners--a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion, as well as the preservation of all plant and animal life--has long predicted a natural disaster that will alter Earth as we know it. Now it has occurred, obliterating most human life. Two women have survived: Ren, a young trapeze dancer locked inside the high-end sex club Scales and Tails, and Toby, a God's Gardener barricaded inside a luxurious spa where many of the treatments are edible. Have others survived? Ren's bioartist friend Amanda? Zeb, her eco-fighter stepfather? Her onetime lover, Jimmy? Or the murderous Painballers, survivors of the mutual-elimination Painball prison? Not to mention the shadowy, corrupt policing force of the ruling powers... Meanwhile, gene-spliced life forms are proliferating: the lion/lamb blends, the Mo'hair sheep with human hair, the pigs with human brain tissue. As Ad
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What you might want to know about The Year of the Flood
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Toby is hiding on the roof of a ruined day spa and Ren is sealed in a sex-club isolation room when the Waterless Flood wipes out humanity.
The Year of the Flood is the second book in Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy, after Oryx and Crake. It retells overlapping events from a different perspective. Each book can largely be read on its own.
Reading order is debated. Many readers prefer Oryx and Crake first; others suggest publication order works fine. The two books cover overlapping timeframes with different protagonists.
The Year of the Flood was written by Margaret Atwood, published in 2009 by Anchor Books.
The Year of the Flood is 448 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Year of the Flood takes most readers 7 to 10 hours to finish.
The Year of the Flood is a standalone novel by Margaret Atwood, not part of a series.
The Year of the Flood is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.