博客來 兩度榮獲布克獎，受多項國際文學大獎肯定
——瑪格麗特‧愛特伍（Margaret Atwood）
首度出版個人回憶錄。
《紐約時報》、《華盛頓郵報》、《時代雜誌》、Goodreads等權威媒體一致盛讚，評選為年度最受矚目新書。
「引人入勝、睿智而風趣——不僅映照寫作之道，更展現生活的藝術。」—《柯克斯書評》（Kirkus Reviews）
當代最具洞察力與想像力的文學大師，如何書寫自己的生命？
瑪格麗特・愛特伍（Margaret Atwood）是現今最具影響力的文學家之一，創作橫跨小說、詩歌、評論與劇作，屢獲國際殊榮，包括布克獎（Booker Prize）、美國筆會終身成就獎（PEN America Lifetime Achievement Award）、以及英國皇室名譽勳位（Order of the Companions of Honour）。代表作《盲眼刺客》（The Blind Assassin）、《使女的故事》（The Handmaid’s Tale）、《證言》（The Testaments）皆被譽為文學經典。
在高齡八十五歲之際，愛特伍以《Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts》誠實而細緻地回顧她的人生與創作軌跡。她在書中寫道：「每位作家至少有兩個自我：一個是生活中的自己，另一個是書寫的自己。雖然所有文字都必須經過他們的腦中，或說，是經過那個心靈，但他們並非同一個存在。」
書中回溯她在魁北克北方森林度過的童年歲月，那段孤寂而自由的成長經驗，如何孕育獨立思考的精神與創造力。愛特伍記錄波希米亞式的文藝聚會，書寫她與伴侶之間近乎魔幻的生活，以及生命中種種政治與時代的轉折。她以一貫清醒而機智的筆觸，帶領讀者穿越記憶，回到文學靈感的源頭——呈現一位作家如何以想像理解現實，並把人生化為藝術。(文／博客來外文館)
How does one of the greatest storytellers of our time write her own life? The long-awaited memoir from the author of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments, one of our most lauded and influential cultural figures.
’Every writer is at least two beings: the one who lives, and the one who writes. Though everything written must have passed through their minds, or mind, they are not the same.’
Raised by ruggedly independent, scientifically minded parents - entomologist father, dietician mother - Atwood spent most of each year in the wild forest of northern Quebec. This childhood was unfettered and nomadic, sometimes isolated (on her eighth birthday: ’It sounds forlorn. It was forlorn. It gets more forlorn.’), but also thrilling and beautiful.
From this unconventional start, Atwood unfolds the story of her life, linking seminal moments to the books that have shaped our literary landscape, from the cruel year that spawned Cat’s Eye to the Orwellian 1980s Berlin where she wrote The Handmaid’s Tale. In pages bursting with bohemian gatherings, her magical life with the wildly charismatic writer Graeme Gibson and major political turning points, we meet poets, bears, Hollywood actors and larger-than-life characters straight from the pages of an Atwood novel.
As we travel with her along the course of her life, more and more is revealed about her writing, the connections between real life and art - and the workings of one of our greatest imaginations.
