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    The Blind Assassin
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    The Blind Assassin
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    The Blind Assassin
    Audiobook18 hours

    The Blind Assassin

    Written by Margaret Atwood

    Narrated by Margot Dionne

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Margaret Atwood takes the art of storytelling to new heights in a dazzling new novel that unfolds layer by astonishing layer and concludes in a brilliant and wonderfully satisfying twist.

    For the past twenty-five years, Margaret Atwood has written works of striking originality and imagination. In The Blind Assassin, she stretches the limits of her accomplishments as never before, creating a novel that is entertaining and profoundly serious.

    The novel opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a- novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist.

    Told in a style that magnificently captures the colloquialisms and clichés of the 1930s and 1940s, The Blind Assassin is a richly layered and uniquely rewarding experience. The novel has many threads and a series of events that follow one another at a breathtaking pace. As everything comes together, readers will discover that the story Atwood is telling is not only what it seems to be--but, in fact, much more.

    The Blind Assassin proves once again that Atwood is one of the most talented, daring, and exciting writers of our time. Like The Handmaid's Tale, it is destined to become a classic.



    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateSep 5, 2000
    ISBN9780553752922
    Unavailable
    The Blind Assassin
    Author

    Margaret Atwood

    Margaret Atwood, whose work has been published in more than forty-five countries, is the author of over fifty books, including fiction, poetry, critical essays, and graphic novels. In addition to The Handmaid’s Tale, now an award-winning television series, her works include Cat’s Eye, short-listed for the 1989 Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; The MaddAddam Trilogy; The Heart Goes Last; Hag-Seed; The Testaments, which won the Booker Prize and was long-listed for the Giller Prize; and the poetry collection Dearly. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Franz Kafka International Literary Prize, the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in Great Britain for her services to literature. She lives in Toronto.

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    Reviews for The Blind Assassin

    4/5

    4,179 ratings228 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I've already been an Atwood admirer for a few years, but The Blind Assassin is too gorgeous to merely admire. I love it. Where it isn't exquisite, it's precise. It moves expertly between the dry, the brutally truthful, and the passionate, and brings the keenness of the author's eye to them all. Atwood describes both the elusive and the everyday with a transforming grace.All that is merely on the level of prose, of paragraph. Her narrator is human, complex, and honest. The other characters are interesting, Laura chiefly so, of course, and I appreciate the way Iris acknowledges and interrogates her own inability to do others' characters justice. I particularly appreciated the way that Atwood drew us into the book with the mystery of Laura, and then gradually made us (well, me, at any rate) fonder and fonder of Iris. A beautiful literary bait and switch.All this and a compelling plot. Really, if I try to think of something wrong with this book, the first thing that swims to mind is that it's more than a little intimidating to a young author. My consolation is that she was 61 when it was published. I still have some years to practice.
    • 4/5
      I loved this multi-layered novel.
    • 5/5
      Masterpiece.
      There is little left to say about Atwood. This is a spectacular example of her total control of structure, tone, incomplete information, and flat-out beautiful sentences. Worth it for the eyes like snake-filled pits.
    • 4/5
      Ok, this book is just really good. Maybe a 4.5. It's a bit long, but I read it slow for more enjoyment.

      Here are some of my favorite parts: Why is it we want so badly to memorialize ourselves? Even while we're still alive. We wish to assert our existence, like dogs peeing on fire hydrants. We put on display our framed photographs, our parchment diplomas, our silver-plated cups; we monogram our linen, we carve our names on trees, we scrawl them on washroom walls. It's all the same impulse. What do we hope from it? Applause, envy, respect? Or simply attention, of any kind we can get?

      At the very least we want a witness. We can't stand the idea of our own voices falling silent finally, like a radio running down.

      or

      When you're young, you think everything you do is disposable. You move from now to now, crumpling time up in your hands, tossing it away. You're your own speeding car. You think you can get rid of things, and people too—leave them behind. You don't yet know about the habit they have, of coming back.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this, a sort of turbocharged whodunnit that jumps between past, present and a novel-within-a-novel (which, like a Russian doll, has its own stories inside, too). The twists are brilliant worked, especially as the pieces fall into place just before the reveals, allowing the reader to feel proud of themselves. I did have some reservations, though: despite the length, some parts are barely sketched out, while others are rushed and some are dwelt on for far too long. Would still highly recommend for the satisfying plot.
    • 3/5
      Early century study of a woman and her sister growing up in failing wealth and the compromises and challenges that occur. Interesting read, good writing, though a bit slow to develop, and early plot is a bit disconnected for me. The last 1/3 of the book brought it to life!
    • 5/5
      Damn, how did I not start reading Margaret Atwood until the past couple of months? This one was even better than THE HANDMAID'S TALE, and that was a really good novel.
    • 5/5
      What I have loved about this book is the story wiitnin a story: The novel, a sci-fi story, then the history of the novel told by the surviving sister and news articles. I love family mysteries and this would qualify. I have read it twice and could not put it down either time.
    • 4/5
      Good, not great, read.
    • 4/5
      Excellent book
    • 5/5
      This was a great book that covers the time period from just before WWI to just after WWII and actually into 1999. It is the story of two sisters. Iris is the sister who is telling the story in her old age and she is such a perfectly developed "old" person. I just loved her as the senior Iris, not so much as the young Iris. The story is not only historical, a story about sisters, it is also a mystery and a bit of science fiction. Mostly to me, it is about old age, about living past all the other people in your life until you are alone and then the retrospect of looking back at your life at the things you didn't see, the carelessness of how you lived. This book was so well written, unique style with its layering device, and so enjoyable reading with great quotable lines. I think it was worthy of the Booker Prize that it received. My rating is 4.75.
    • 5/5
      Atwood is a remarkable writer. I enjoyed every written word. The plot is slow developing, so one really needs to stick with it to enjoy it, but it is all worth it in the end. It comes together beautifully and if I was only at 3/5 midway through, I was at 5/5 by the last page. This being my second Atwood novel (the first being A Handmaid's Tale, which I loved!), I'll be looking for more from her.
    • 5/5
      I absolutely LOVED this book, and can't believe it's been sitting on my to-read shelf untouched for over a year! I love books that play around with perspective and include mixed-media/meta stuff like fake newspaper articles, journal entries, letters, and of course books nested within books. At first I felt like I was racing through Iris' sections to get to the Blind Assassin excerpts, and then it was suddenly the other way around as her backstory suddenly became twistier. Despite its 521 pages this was a 4-hour marathon read for me, I couldn't put it down and it really felt like it flew by. I took some notes in my phone when I finished this one; I'll just leave them here: kazuo ishiguros spiritual descendent - very "a pale view of hills." which one of them was the mute girl, the blind assassin?
    • 4/5
      Atwood shows that she is one of the most gifted word smiths the world currently has. Her sentences paint a picture that is not only easy to see but one that you can actually feel, taste, hear, smell and touch. The story itself was well planned and had believable twists. I would have liked to personally seen more development of the characters as well as the interstory story. Overall an excellent book.
    • 5/5
      I think this is one of the best books Atwood has written lately. Iris Chase tells the story of her sister,Laura Chase, who killed herself just after the war ended. However, before her death she had written a sexually explicit novel called "The Blind Assassin" which includes an pulp fantasy story. Thus this book is a story within a story within a book. Fascinating.
    • 4/5
      I adored this book, but I also disliked it. It was way too long and the characters were rather flat --despite their story being told in detail -- and they were mostly unlikable. So on the one hand the book was off-putting because of its tiring and boring length and its unattractive characters, while the continuous flipping between three stories was rather annoying too. On the other hand you have Atwood's incredible prose style, her brilliant descriptions, her wit, her insightful observations that make scenes ring true. Iris is an example of my contradictory reactions, as an old lady she was intelligent and perceptive, with often terribly amusing views on modern life, whereas in her own life she remained incredibly passive, incapable of acting and standing up for herself till about page 600 -- at last! Still, there were so many passages in the book that were razor sharp and beautifully written that it was well worth the effort to continue to the end of this complex and incisive book.
    • 4/5
      Another great read and phenomenal book from Margaret Atwood! Quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Her vocabulary and descriptive turns-of-phrases are levels above anyone I think I have ever read. And for the third book in a row (that I have read), Atwood does a fantastic job of crafting a story that entertains as well as making you think.

      While The Blind Assassin starts off slower than other Atwood books that I have read, it is in no way less exciting that the others. Once things start to fall into place for the reader, it becomes a page-turner that you don't want to put down until you know the truth about everything and see if your hunches are, indeed, correct.

      I would recommend either Oryx & Crake or The Handmaid's Tale for first time Atwood readers, but The Blind Assassin is definitely a must read for anyone who is a fan of hers.
    • 4/5
      A memorable novel by a remarkable author.
    • 2/5
      Thoroughly dull...
    • 4/5
      a great read
    • 5/5
      This is one of those books that sticks with you, long after you read it. Its not an easy book to read, both in topic, and in writing. You need to read between the lines, and what isn't written is just as important as what is...First none of the people in this book are great people. I found myself empathizing with them, but not necessarily liking them. From Iris, the narrator, who stays willfully ignorant of what is happening around her, to Laura, who at times seems ancient beyond her years, while at other times, a spoiled girl who doesn't even make an effort at fitting in.There is a lot of heart break in this story, and while certain parts are barely hinted at, this seems to make it all the more horrific.Of course, this is during a time of great upheaval in civilization, women are becoming free to be their own person, from the unknown Grandmother, matriarch of society in the early 1890's, to Iris's marriage for financial stability to Richard Griffen (and his sister, Winifred), to what happened to Aimee, Iris's Daughter, and her Grand Daughter, Sabrina (much imagined, but never known). Its a story within a story within a story. What is true, what is made up, and what is mis-remembered are all jumbled together. But, its jumbled together beautifully, with skill and grace.
    • 5/5
      I'll start with a bit of personal baggage, because my first exposure to Margaret Atwood's writing was The Handmaid's Tale, which I read when I was young because my parents had a copy. That book is probably the best known of her early novels, which does her a disservice, as it seemed one-dimensional, humourless and cold (though I would almost certainly be more charitable if I re-read it now). This got me thinking about how one's perceptions of a writer can be shaped by how and where we first experience them, and how much can be lost if something unrepresentative gets overhyped or taught at schools and colleges, or even how reading something before you are ready for it can prejudice you. I did make one further attempt a few years later when I picked up a second hand copy of the story collection Bluebeard's Egg, but to be honest I don't really remember that. Since then I have never returned to Atwood until now. This seems criminally negligent in the light of the Blind Assassin, which is brilliant. The Blind Assassin has quite a complex structure. It begins with Iris, an embittered old woman remembering her younger sister Laura's death, a suicide that was covered up. Laura has a fanatical posthumous following due to a book, also called the Blind Assassin. This forms most of the sections that alternate with Iris's memoir, and it tells the story of its writer's affair with a fugitive writer and the stories he and the narrator make up about a mythical society. This novel within a novel (a device that reminded my quite strongly of A.S. Byatt's Babel Tower, another book that contained excerpts from a novel written by one of its characters) is itself interspersed with pithy newspaper articles which give the "official" version of the events of Laura and Iris's lives, and their families. The plot is ultimately much more complex than the family story or the novel within a novel, but the whole thing has much to say about sibling rivalry and secrets. Iris recounts her own family story, the story of their childhood and the story of her disastrous marriage to a wealthy but insensitive businessman and her relationship with his scheming sister. This account does occasionally come close to getting tedious, but is invariably redeemed by wry observations and occasional clues that the story is not as simple as it seems at first glance, many of which are much more significant than they appear initially. The denouement is brilliantly plotted and very moving. This is a wonderful, clever and richly nuanced book which thoroughly deserved its Booker Prize. I will be reading more of Margaret Atwood's work.
    • 3/5
      Very clever, complex, multi-layered, and just too long.
    • 5/5
      Not absolutely perfect, but an awfully, awfully good read. The interlocking narratives are nicely worked together, the writing is great ... I wanted more of the story-within-a-story, but that's okay. Definitely worth the time; as with most of Atwood's books, I'm very glad in the end that I read it.
    • 4/5
      Wonderfully intriguing plot.
    • 5/5
      This is a wonderful, multilayered story! It tells three separate tales, one in the past, one in the present, and one science fiction story, and weaves them all together beautifully.Margaret Atwood is just a wonderful storyteller!
    • 4/5
      Well-written, intriguing mystery within a mystery. Loved it, love Atwood.
    • 4/5
      I've been dipping my toes into Atwood's bibliography and have liked this entry best (so far). Past and present intertwine in this story told by an old woman, fighting her infirmities to write down present happenings as well as the mysteries of the past. The settings of Toronto and Port Ticonderoga felt familiar from my years living in those areas, with the added gilding of what the industrialists are providing for their womenfolk. Iris is fairly passive, trying to keep her sister under some form of control as their father suffers with traumas from the war and his wife's death. The girls are basically raised by the house keeper. Secrets thread through the story, hints dropped here and there as an unnamed woman has trysts with an anarchist lover who tends to pillow talk of weaving a story of the blind assassin who falls in love with a mute sacrificial virgin. I'm not doing it justice, it's a complicated tale with a few sympathetic characters and some that I wanted to yell at. It illustrates how the rich have problems too, and it shows what happens when the money runs out and misunderstandings split people apart. Snippets of newspaper stories give factual or gossipy side lights to the main story.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyed reading this but pretty much hated all the characters in the book for varying reasons. Iris was particularly a victim of her own pathetic nature. Despite that, you cannot go past a good Atwood novel and the twist at the end got me.
    • 4/5
      I love reading MA because all of her books are phenomenal but there is absolutely no formula to her writing.