“That night when the Waterless Flood began, I was waiting for my test results: they kept you locked in the Sticky Zone for weeks, in case you had something contagious”

I felt like a child opening present under the Christmas tree when I held the new Margaret Atwood in my hands, knowing full well that I was holding a book that would challenge my thoughts, entertain my sense and intrigue my imagination. After reading The Year of the Flood I was not disappointed. Atwood has again excelled herself with her clever weaving of narrative and time, creating a rich tapestry of a book.

Margaret Atwood’s latest novel of speculative fiction presents itself as an interesting Ying to the Yang that was her Oryx and Crake. Set in the same world and timeline, both of these novels tell the story of the destruction of humanity at the hands of Crake (Glenn), but from significantly different perspectives. The Year of the Flood takes the same story first told in Oryx and Crake but shows us a kind of inverted back story view, a ‘behind the scenes’ if you will, which at points has sometimes surprising flashes of contact between the two novels. Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood finally meet at the end of the novel, taking the original story that few steps further from the unknown in to new and hopeful territory.

In Oryx and Crake the focus was on the extinction of Mankind by its own hand and was narrated by a disenfranchised and disempowered man, Jimmy (aka Snowman), who posits himself at the centre of the tempest. In contrast The Year of the Flood works as an antithesis to the male-centred narrative. Atwood now gives voice to those ‘Other’ stories surrounding her original version of the ‘fall of man’, elaborating on the other stories that occur around the lives of Jimmy and Crake. Although you can read this book as a standalone piece of fiction, I feel that the two narratives are so closely intertwined that Atwood’s full intent only becomes clear if you read both books.

As with all Atwood novels there are multiple threads of meaning and voice. In her dystopian fiction (The Handmaid’s Tale, Oryx and Crake and now The Year of the Flood) there is a strong didactic voice emerging with regard to man’s use and abuse of the environment. This voice is most strongly embodied by Adam One and the God’s Gardeners religious group within the novel. This is such a strong element that there are chapters devoted to Adam One and his sermons to his flock, followed by a ‘Gardener’s Hymn’. The Year of the Flood also has a far more communal feel which is also express within the Adam One chapters. Where the chapters narrated by Ren and Toby tells of their own individual journey, Adam’s sermons deal with the events that effect and happened to the group.

Aside from the sections orated by Adam One, the rest of the novel is told via the characters of Ren and Toby, each in a way fulfilling the fairytale personas of maiden and crone – Ren, being the maiden and Toby the crone. Atwood opens the novel to even deeper levels of interpretation and meaning, by having these characters embody such fairytale stereotypes. Regardless of their differences, they both go through the typical quest of self discovery that eventually leads to self-actualisation and a better understanding of their place in society.

As a novel The Year of the Flood satisfies the reader on both an emotional and psychological level and is definitely a book you can sink your teeth into (albeit that it’s perhaps a soy based bite).

Reviewed by Marina Noble

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