In einer gar nicht so fernen Zukunft, in einer Welt, die ständig von Umweltkatastrophen bedroht ist, leben Oryx und Crake. Der Meeresspiegel ist bereits dramatisch gestiegen und die Küstenstädte sind dem Wasser zum Opfer gefallen. Die Mehrheit der Menschen haust in den verfallenen Städten, in denen sich die Epidemien immer mehr auszubreiten drohen. Crake ist Wissenschaftler und mit der Entwicklung neuer Medikamente beschäftigt, die die Menschen immunisieren sollen. Aber Crake, ein Genie auf dem Gebiet genetischer Manipulation, verfolgt darüber hinaus ganz eigene Pläne. Ein Wettlauf gegen den Untergang der Menschheit beginnt ...
Margaret Atwood is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry and critical essays. Her novels include Cat’s Eye, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, and the MaddAddam trilogy. Her 1985 classic, The Handmaid’s Tale, was followed in 2019 by a sequel, The Testaments, which was a global number one bestseller and won the Booker Prize. In 2020 she published Dearly, her first collection of poetry for a decade. Atwood has won numerous awards including the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to literature. She has also worked as a cartoonist, illustrator, librettist, playwright and puppeteer. She lives in Toronto, Canada.
© George Whiteside
The writing is spare. The structure is tight. The observation of the human condition is both profound and impish. Character is crucial. The issues are huge and we feel the weight of them. Finally, it leaves the reader on a cliff-edge the like of which I have never encountered elsewhere. It was nominated for the Man Booker. I think it should have won Anita Mason Guardian