Read an Excerpt.

Imagine those
Russian nesting dolls, the ones that live one within
anotherÖyou open the first one and there's a whole family
inside. Like secrets, the more they keep appearing the deeper you
go. There is an eerily similar structure to Margaret Atwood's long
awaited novel, THE BLIND ASSASSIN.  

The novel's title is actually the title of the story within,
written by the narrator's sister, Laura Chase, who on the very
first page of the book, you learn, drives herself off a bridge ten
days after World War II ends. In the next few chapters you are fed
the fate of the remaining Chase and Griffen family members in
newspaper clippings and articles. In 1998 the remaining family
members are narrator Iris Chase Griffen, older sister to deceased
Laura and wife of the prominent, pestilent and now deceased
Richard. Her only descendent is her estranged granddaughter
Sabrina, whom she doesn't know at all but yearns to
meet.  

Lonely and regretful, Iris still imagines herself as a young woman
beneath the heavy shackles of age despite her papery skin and
brittle bones. Her blind assassin --- impending death --- feels
close by, so she hurries her pen to paper and tries to write the
tragedy that is her life and ultimately the legacy of her
granddaughter. At the end of her life she realizes, "Nothing is
more difficult than to understand the deadÖbut nothing is more
dangerous than to ignore them." Only now, in the clarity of time
passed, can she see the error of her ways --- and that of her
family. In a series of flashbacks that return intermittently to
Iris's present and rather solitary life, Atwood tells a complicated
but engaging story. The backdrop is over one hundred years of
Canadian history, and the story is of Iris and Laura's posh, then
poor and often painful childhood. Yet at the heart of everything is
the fantastical tale of "The Blind Assassin," Laura's passionate
and controversial novel, published after her
death.  

Growing up in a sea of old money and then no money, Iris and her
sister rely on the kindness of others, a la Blanche Dubois, and
like Blanche they are deceived. Trying to do what she thinks is
right after her father's business is about to go under, Iris sells
herself --- in a sense --- into marriage and ultimately a business
merger with the older, wealthy Richard Griffen. She immediately
finds herself and her sister thrown into a pit of snakes ---
Richard and his nasty society sister Winifred are the ones with the
sharpest fangs.  

In order to stay afloat in this new cutthroat world, Iris feigns
ignorance and plays the role of the dim blonde, in turn allowing
her life to be controlled by the very people who care about her
least, and the one who loves her most, is left to fend for
herselfÖunlucky Laura. Over the years, the scandals and
corruption increase, and Iris realizes the hell she has entered
into, but like one who makes a deal with the devil, she doesn't
believe there is any escape. For Laura, it was death. What will it
be for Iris?

Interspersed with the woeful tale of the Chase sisters is another
sad story, that of "The Blind Assassin." It's about a man and a
woman involved in a clandestine love affair, inevitably doomed of
course, but their secret and passionate meetings are highlighted by
the sci-fi fable he tells his lover every time they meet. In
another dimension of time, in a land called Sakiel-Norn, an entire
society of people live in luxury but only at the cost of sadistic
yearly sacrifices and the hands and eyes of unlucky slave children.
With deft hands the children weave the most beautiful and intricate
fabrics with striking colors and fine textures, but after only a
few years they are blinded by their incessant work. They are then
turned into prostitutes, thieves, and finally, assassins. As the
two lovers continue to meet throughout the novel, always at the
risk of getting caught, the story is told in vivid installments.
While reading the excerpts of "The Blind Assassin," you begin to
wonder --- what is fact and what is fiction within this novel? Who
are the real lovers of this story?  

A story within a story within a story --- more nesting dolls emerge
with every chapter leading up to the finale. THE BLIND ASSASSIN,
Atwood's enormous and multilayered creation, is a genuine treat to
fans who have waited eagerly for her next novel. Despite a few
moments of melodrama, and antagonists who sometimes appear
two-dimensional, she still delivers a deliriously moving
epic.