This month, Julie Hale selected Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood as her top pick for book clubs. “A strange and beautiful work, this masterful narrative proves that Atwood can do anything as a novelist,” says Hale, who knows her literary fiction (in addition to having an MFA, she’s been writing this column for nearly 10 years!).
BookPage reviewer Stephenie Harrison was similarly impressed in her review of the hardcover edition, saying that “Atwood’s message remains chilling, timely and necessary.”
What is your book club reading this month?
For those who like Margaret Atwood, Sena Jeter Naslund’s ADAM & EVE might be an interesting next choice. She is fearless both in exploring the possibilities of literary style and in the questions she raises. This book takes on the dangers of fundamentalism and challenges our age-old understanding of the Book of Genesis — suggesting that violence, not Eve’s curiousity about an apple — is the true original sin. This action-filled novel never lets up in asking difficult questions and taking on big ideas.
Naslund is the author of AHAB’S WIFE. On the face of it, this new book couldn’t be more different, and in many ways, she writes a different book each time. But each book is united by an interest in exploring–making sense of — the world through the eyes of a woman negotiating the world; a woman who helps reshape the readers’s understanding of the world we inhabit. In this way, she’s a feminist with a velvet glove, gently but persistently challenging our held assumptions with beautifully wrought sentences.
Full disclosure — I work for Naslund’s publisher, and I had the great good fortune to spend a little time with her, taking her around to local NYC bookstores yesterday to say hello to booksellers. We had a wonderful conversation with her about why she wrote this book; the the literary risks she takes, and how to marry a novel of ideas to a novel with lots of action. I think ADAM & EVE will generate a lively conversation when it’s published and I am looking forward to it.
Fairly insightful publish. Never thought that it was this simple after all. I had spent a excellent deal of my time looking for someone to explain this subject clearly and you’re the only 1 that ever did that. Kudos to you! Keep it up