Margaret Atwood wrote The Year of the Flood as a prequel of sorts to her Booker-prize-nominated novel Oryx and Crake. Atwood has created a Dystopia of stunning depth that is as weighty and ominous as the fore-runners of the genre; George Orwell’s 1984, and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. What sets The Year of the Flood apart from those other works is that, where they were set in a future that was not-too-distant, Atwood’s novel appears to be set in a future that is scarily and inescapably imminent. Atwood follows the God Gardener’s, an environmentally-friendly religious sect, as they pick their way through the crumbling odes to consumerism that remain post-apocalypse. Atwood’s analysis of religion, scientific exploration and consumerism are the work of a true literary genius.
