The Year of the Flood

This book by Margaret Atwood is a post-apocalyptic novel set in the same world as her 2003 Oryx and Crake. I read that at the time it came out, and don't remember it well enough to comment on the relationships, but I'm sure it illuminates two of the main characters in that book. As well as providing several new interesting characters.

One particularly well-written aspect of the book is the description of the way the different locales (fast food restaurant, religious commune, corporate enclave...) smell. For instance, here's Ren, one of the two main point of view characters, shortly after she's moved from the HealthWyzer compound to the Gardeners' community:

Rose-scented soap was the best. Bernice and me would take some home, and I’d keep mine in my pillowcase, to drown out the mildew smell of my damp quilt.

(The quilt was mildewed because the Gardeners didn't use dryers.)

I recommended the book to a Vegan friend because it's one of the few works of literature I've run into where there are vegetarian characters who really think about the relationship between food and morality.

I enjoyed this one a lot. I don't know whether it will replace The Handmaid's Tale as my favorite, but I can certainly see rereading it. And it made me want to reread Oryx and Crake, too.

Related posts:

1. Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood
2. Wolf Hall
3. Little Dorrit