The novel opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge". They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the listener expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a sci-fi story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in a dingy backstreet room. Next, a 1947 newspaper article announces the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of Iris' husband, a wealthy, distinguished industrialist.

Told in a style that magnificently captures the colloquialisms and cliches of the 1930s and 1940s, the many threads of the novel follow one another at a breathtaking pace. When they finally come together, listeners will discover that the story Atwood is telling is not at all what it seemed to be.

"The Blind Assassin" proves once again that Atwood is one of the most talented, daring, and exciting writers of our time. Like The Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye, and Alias Grace, it is destined to become a classic.