Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed.

Or you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read. Hello and welcome to Bookworm. I'm Michael

Silverblad, and I'm terrifically honored and pleased that today my guest is Margaret Atwood. Her most

recent novel to my mind is her most thrilling, her most engrossing. It's called The Blind

Assassin, and it's published by Double Dayay under the imprint of Nan Talise.

I don't need to introduce her to this audience, but I will. Her most recent books include Aelius Grace, the Robber Bride. She is the author of the classic The Handmaid's Tale, the author of many books of poetry, short stories, children's books,

essays. I was delighted to read her recent essays on the influence of the North. She's Canadian

in literature. And I wanted to begin, because this book seems to know the virtue of stories and lies as a way of continuing to live.

I wanted to talk to you about what's satisfying about them.

Stories and lies.

And lies.

Well, stories have just been satisfying for a very, very, very long time.

And they're also classically a way of keeping yourself alive, as in the Scheherazade story,

and a way of attracting women as in the Othello courtship.

And people say, Desdemona, what was it about this guy?

He told such great stories.

This is underestimated.

It's not always your abs.

So there are those things about it.

...