The Blind Assassin
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| The Blind Assassin | |
 First edition cover |
|
| Author | Margaret Atwood |
|---|---|
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Historical fiction |
| Publisher | McClelland and Stewart |
| Publication date | September 2, 2000 |
| Media type | print (paperback and hardback), audio-cd |
| Pages | 536pp |
| ISBN | 0771008635 |
The Blind Assassin is an award winning, bestselling novel by the Canadian author Margaret Atwood. It was first published by McClelland and Stewart in 2000. Set in Canada, it is narrated from the present day, referring back to events that span the twentieth century.
The work was awarded the Booker Prize in 2000 and the Hammett Prize in 2001. It was also nominated for Governor General's Award in 2000, Orange Prize for Fiction, and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2002. [1] Time Magazine named it the best fiction novel of 2000 and included it in its list of the 100 greatest English-language novels since 1923.
[edit] Plot summary
The novel centres around the protagonist, Iris Chase, and her sister Laura, who committed suicide immediately after the Second World War. Iris, now an old woman, recalls the events and relationships of her childhood, youth and middle age, as well as her unhappy marriage to Richard Griffen, a rival of her industrialist father. Interwoven into the novel is a story within a story, a roman à clef attributed to Laura and published by Iris about Alex Thomas, a politically radical author of pulp science fiction who has an ambiguous relationship with the sisters. That novel itself contains a story within a story, the eponymous Blind Assassin, a science fiction story told by Alex's fictional counterpart to that novel's protagonist.
The novel takes the form of a gradual revelation, illuminating both Iris' youth and her old age before coming to the pivotal events of her and Laura's lives around the time of the Second World War. As the novel unfolds, and the novel-within-a-novel becomes ever more obviously inspired by real events, it becomes clear that Laura's novel isn't what it seems; it is eventually revealed that Iris herself, not Laura, was the novel-within-a-novel's author and protagonist.
The book is set in the fictional Ontario town of Port Ticonderoga and in the Toronto of the 1930s and 1940s. It is a work of historical fiction with the major events of Canadian history forming an important backdrop to the novel. Greater verisimilitude is given through a series of newspaper articles that comment on events and on the novel's characters from a distance.
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| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Disgrace |
Man Booker Prize recipient 2000 |
Succeeded by True History of the Kelly Gang |
