"[Written with] energy, inventiveness, and narrative panache. . . . A gripping and visceral book that showcases [Atwood's] pure storytelling talents." --Michiko Kakutani,
The New York Times "[
The Year of the Flood] shows the Nobel Prize-worthy Atwood . . . at the pinnacle of her prodigious creative powers." --
Elle "A heart-pounding thriller." --
The Washington Post Book World "Leave it to Atwood to find humor in a post-apocalyptic world as she covertly, and brilliantly, addresses questions of how we need to live on an imperiled planet." --
Kansas City Star "Atwood is funny and clever, such a good writer and real thinker. . . .
The Year of the Flood isn't prophecy, but it is eerily possible."
--The New York Times Book Review "Timely and gripping. . . . Atwood tells a good story, one filled with suspense and even levity."
--USA Today "Enthralling. . . . Memorable characters, a tightly controlled pace and shockingly plausible scenes make it fly--to a mysterious, skin-prickling ending."
--San Francisco Chronicle "Atwood renders this civilization and these two lives within it with tenderness and insight, a healthy dread, and a guarded humor." --
O, the Oprah Magazine "Atwood spins the most arresting alternate mythologies to our hell-bent world. . . .
The Year of the Flood is a slap-happy romp through the end times. Stuffed with cornball hymns, genetic mutations worth of Thomas Pynchon and a pharmaceutical company run amok, it reads like dystopia verging on satire. She may be imagining a world in flames, but she's doing it with a dark cackle."
--The Los Angeles Times "Thought-provoking, beautifully constructed, and rich with the imaginative flourishes for which [Atwood] is rightly famous. . . . A hugely entertaining and satisfying read."
--The Irish Independent "Prodigiously imaginative and outrageously funny. . . . Atwood's wit is biting. . . . Her brilliance dazzles."
--
The Plain Dealer "Heart-pounding, mysterious and surprisingly touching. . . . She enchants us so convincingly that after her spell is over, the 'real' world seems temporarily transformed.
The Year of the Flood is both a warning and a gift."
--Jane Ciabattari,
"Books We Like,"
NPR.org
"Atwood is a wry wizard at world-building. . . . Fans . . . should grab a biohazard suit, crawl into a hermetically sealed fallout shelter, and dive right in."
--The Christian Science Monitor "Funny. . . . Entertaining. . . . You fall into her intensely inventive world and find yourself carried happily along." --Anthony Doerr,
Orion Magazine
"Atwood scores a 10."
--Philadelphia Inquirer "Atwood's latest is a fiercely imagined tale of suffering that rivals Job's. . . . As dark as Atwood's vision may be, the bonds among her women give her work a bittersweet power."
--People "Richly imagined. . . . Thought-provoking, unexpectedly funny and utterly original."
--The Denver Post "Engrossing and suspenseful." --
The New York Review of Books "Riveting. . . . Cunning, droll. . . . The intensity of her apocalyptic fantasy doesn't prevent Atwood from giving free rein to her peppery and inventive humor. . . . So she courts us with her puckish wit, holds us spellbound with suspense, and then confronts us with harrowing and tragic scenarios." --
The Kansas City Star "Atwood's language remains as juicy and colorful as ever. . . . [She] allows her imagination to roam rudely, widely, and vigorously where lesser minds fear to tread." --
Barnes & Noble Review "Vintage Atwood: It's artfully edgy, casting a pitiless eye on her fellow creatures. . . . A powerful indictment of the way human beings have long treated the planet and themselves. . . . The book takes big risks." --
Chicago Tribune "Mesmerizing. . . .
Flood's relentlessly fabulous inventions and despondent predictions become almost unbearable, especially told in such gorgeously trenchant prose. In this way, the book recalls Atwood's 1985 masterpiece,
The Handmaid's Tale."
--Time Out New York (five out of five stars)
"Atwood unflinchingly holds aloft the sanctity of life--for all species--and the human quest for love."
--Chicago Sun-Times "With Atwood's characteristic brainy humor. . . .
The Year of the Flood consistently does what one expects of any work by Margaret Atwood: It entertains, spins out suspense and rewards a reader's basic impulse, all the while subtly and expertly maintaining its literary respectability."
--Minneapolis Star Tribune "[An] entertaining, often mesmerizing, consciousness-raising novel. . . . This is a work that amuses, informs, enlightens and, remarkably, also challenges its readers to be better persons."
--San Antonio Express-News "[Atwood] is emerging as literature's queen of the apocalypse. . . . Fine. . . . Illuminating. . . . Gripping and scary, provocative and quite humorous."
--Associated Press
"A marvelously absorbing novel. . . . Vivid and remarkably drawn."
--The A. V. Club "[With] Atwood's trademark wit and clarity of vision."
--The Dallas Morning News "Atwood's mischievous, suspenseful, and sagacious dystopian novel follows the trajectory of current environmental debacles to a shattering possible conclusion with passionate concern and arch humor." --
Booklist, starred review