Burning Questions
The Sunday Times bestselling collection of essays from Booker prize winner Margaret Atwood
by Margaret Atwood
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 1 Mar 2022 | Archive Date 31 Mar 2022
Vintage | Chatto & Windus
Talking about this book? Use #BurningQuestions #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
In this funny, erudite, endlessly curious, uncannily prescient collection of essays cultural icon Margaret Atwood asks:
- Why do people everywhere, in all cultures, tell stories?
- How much of yourself can you give away without evaporating?
- How can we live on our planet?
- Is it true? And is it fair?
- What do zombies have to do with authoritarianism?
In over fifty pieces Atwood aims her prodigious intellect and impish humour at our world, and reports back to us on what she finds. The roller-coaster period covered in the collection brought an end to the end of history, a financial crash, the rise of Trump and a pandemic. From debt to tech, the climate crisis to freedom; from when to dispense advice to the young (answer: only when asked) to how to define granola, we have no better questioner of the many and varied mysteries of our human universe.
'Brilliant and funny' Joan Didion
'She's taken our times and made us wise to them' Ali Smith
'All over the reading world, the history books are being opened to the next blank page and Atwood's name is written at the top of it' Anne Enright, Guardian
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781784744519 |
| PRICE | £20.00 (GBP) |
| PAGES | 496 |
Featured Reviews
Deb S, Reviewer
Another fantastic collection from Margaret Atwood. This is witty, erudite, wise, wide-ranging and thought-provoking. I liked the chronological presentation - with pieces written over a twenty-year period, it helped give each piece context and, I felt, gave the book an organic feel.
As with any collection of essays, not every piece will appeal equally to every reader, but even as someone who generally prefers fiction and long-form, I have no hesitation in giving this five stars - it earns every one of them.
In conclusion, I want to be Margaret Atwood when I grow up.
Joanna R, Educator
Margaret Atwood is incredibly knowledgeable; but importantly: she is wise.
Reading Burning Questions was like meeting up with old friends and meeting new ones. Some of the essays I had read before but most I had not yet come across. Either way, there is so much to think about as you read through this collection. I love how she weaves through her love of Shakespeare, the impact of Orwell's 1984, the experience of having written A Handmaid's Tale and Alias Grace and Hagseed and Oryx and Crake (All of which, I have read) with her deep concern for the state of the world: the environment, equality and abuse of power.
This is a highly readable collection of essays. I will be dipping in and out of what will be a highly treasured collection from one of my favourite authors.
I highly recommend Burning Questions to all who are intrigued by Atwood or the state of the world in general!
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Readers who liked this book also liked:
