Author: Margaret Atwood Told retrospectively by a narrator in the 21st century, The Blind Assassin is a frame-narrative - a story which contains another story, or multiple stories in which the two principle protagonists, Iris and Laura, recount significant portions of the lives throughout the 20th century, including their involvement in the Second World War. The novel also contains a second novel supposedly written by Laura herself, a novel concerning the figure of Alex Thomas, a sci-fi writer with communist sympathise to whom the two sister have had romantic relations. Within that second novel is the titular story of The Blind Assassin, a science-fiction story about a fictional planet on which children are used as slave-labour, toiling away making carpets until they turn blind. Though The Blind Assassin doesnt conform to most peoples idea of a prototypical sci-fi novel, its certainly one of the best examples of the genre. Atwoods prose is something truly special, and here intermingling of fiction and history, as well as her utilisation of character and narrative voice is deceptively subtle, and remarkably nuanced. If youre more interested in the human aspect to science-fiction, The Blind Assassin is the book to read.
