Burning Questions

CBC Books | | Posted: December 15, 2021 12:24 AM | Last Updated: March 8, 2022

Margaret Atwood

Image | BOOK COVER: Burning Questions by Margaret Atwood

(Penguin Random House Canada)

From cultural icon Margaret Atwood comes a brilliant collection of essays — funny, erudite, endlessly curious, uncannily prescient — which seek answers to Burning Questions such as: Why do people everywhere, in all cultures, tell stories? How much of yourself can you give away without evaporating? How can we live on our planet? Is it true? And is it fair? What do zombies have to do with authoritarianism?

In over fifty pieces Atwood aims her prodigious intellect and impish humour at the world, and reports back to us on what she finds. This roller-coaster period brought the end of history, a financial crash, the rise of Trump and a pandemic. From debt to tech, the climate crisis to freedom; from when to dispense advice to the young (answer: only when asked) to how to define granola, we have no better guide to the many and varied mysteries of our universe.

Burning Questions is available in March 2022.

Margaret Atwood is the celebrated Canadian writer who has published fiction, nonfiction, poetry and comics. Her acclaimed books include The Handmaid's Tale, Alias Grace, Oryx and Crake and The Edible Woman. She has won several awards for her work including the Governor General's Literary Award, the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Man Booker Prize. She is also a founder of the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Writers' Trust of Canada.

Interviews with Margaret Atwood

Media | Margaret Atwood and Omar El Akkad: Beyond Dystopia

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Media Audio | The Current : Margaret Atwood on her late partner Graeme Gibson, and their shared love of birds

Caption: Canadian author Margaret Atwood shared much with her late partner, the novelist Graeme Gibson, including a love of birds. In a conversation from March, she talks to Matt Galloway about the spring migration, the new edition of Gibson's Bedside Book of Birds and what nature can bring us, especially amid the pandemic.