The Blind Assassin

The Blind Assassin is a novel published in 2000 by the Canadian author Margaret Atwood, set in Canada. It is narrated from the present day, referring back to events that happened within a family over a period covering the twentieth century and a little before.

Related Topics:
Novel - 2000 - Canadian - Margaret Atwood

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The novel is centred 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 in an unhappy marriage to a Richard Griffen, a rival of her industrialist father. Interwoven into the lengthy novel is a story within a story, a roman à clef published by Laura about Alex Thomas, a politically radical author of pulp science fiction who had an ambiguous relationship with the sisters. That novel itself contains a story within a story, a science fiction story told by Alex's fictional counterpart to that novel's protagonist.

Related Topics:
Protagonist - Suicide - Second World War - Story within a story - Roman à clef - Pulp - Science fiction

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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.

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The book won the Booker Prize and the Governor General's Award for the year 2000.

Related Topics:
Booker Prize - Governor General's Award

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See also Southern Ontario Gothic.

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