“If I were an American, I would be worried about my country”: Margaret Atwood answers questions from Ai Weiwei, Rebecca Solnit and others

AAfter the phenomenal global success, not to mention timeliness, of the 2017 TV adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood is considered “a combination figurehead, prophetess and saint,” the author writes in her new memoir, Book of Lives. At over 600 pages, this “memoir” ranges from her childhood in the Canadian backwoods to her grief over the death of her partner of 48 years, the writer Graeme Gibson, in 2019, with many friendships, occasional arguments and more than 50 books (including “Cat’s Eye”, “Alias ​​Grace” and the Booker Prize-winning “The Blind Assassin” and “The Testaments”).

The author, who turned 86 last week, always likes to look at the long distance, often from a distance of a few centuries. As Rebecca Solnit notes below, she now has a broad view of our time. Age and the freedom of being a writer (as she says, can’t be fired) make her fearless when it comes to speaking out.

She always rejects the idea of ​​prophetic powers –