The Heart Goes Last

Margaret Atwood puts the human heart to the ultimate test in a new novel that brilliantly satirizes the corporate prison complex of the twenty-first century. Stan and Charmaine are a married couple trying to stay afloat in the midst of a nationwide economic and social collapse. Job loss has forced them to live in their car, leaving them vulnerable to roving gangs. They desperately need to turn their situation around—and fast. The Positron Project seems to be the answer to their prayers. Everyone gets a job and a clean, comfortable house to live in…for six months out of the year. On alternating months, residents must leave their homes and function as inmates in the Positron prison system. Once their month of service in the prison is completed, they can return to their “civilian” homes. At first, this doesn’t seem like too much of a sacrifice to make in order to have a roof over their heads and food on the table. But when Charmaine becomes romantically involved with the man who lives in their house during the months when she and Stan are in the prison, a series of troubling events unfolds, putting Stan’s life in danger. With each passing day, Positron looks less like a prayer answered and more like a chilling prophecy fulfilled.

Margaret Atwood, whose work has been published in thirty-five countries, is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. In addition to The Handmaid’s Tale, her novels include Cat’s Eye, shortlisted 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; Oryx and Crake, shortlisted for the 2003 Man Booker Prize; The Year of the Flood. She is the recipient of the Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award, and lives in Toronto with the writer Graeme Gibson. Author Residence: Toronto Author Hometown: Ottawa

Trade Paperback, 400 pages
Fiction / Literary
ISBN: 9781101912362