A young woman returns to northern Quebec to the remote island of her childhood, with her lover and two friends, to investigate the mysterious disappearance of her father. Flooded with memories, she begins to realise that going home means entering not only another place but another time.

Front: "One of the most important novels of the twentieth century...utterly remarkable."
-New York Times Book Review


`I have to be more careful about my memories. I have to be sure they're my own and not the memories of other people telling me what I felt, how I acted, what I said '




A young woman returns to northern Quebec to the remote island of her childhood. With her lover and two friends, she is looking for traces of her father who has mysteriously disappeared. This overgrown, wild land holds secrets, and answers too - and they lie in wait -- just for her . . .

By the author of The Handmaid's Tale, The Testaments and Alias Grace

'One of the most important novels of the 20th century . . . utterly remarkable' New York Times

'I feel it will be different if I look myself. Probably when we get there my father will have returned from wherever he has been, he will be sitting in the cabin waiting for us.'

A young woman returns to northern Quebec, to the remote island of her childhood, with her lover and her two friends to investigate the mysterious disappearance of her father. Flooded with memories, she begins to realise that going home means entering not only another place but another time. As the wild island exerts its elemental hold and she is submerged in the language of the wilderness, she sees that what she is really looking for is her own past.

'A stunning and satisfying book' Time Out

'Utterly absorbing' Sunday Times

'Atwood has undertaken a serious and complex task. . . . She shows the depths that must be explored if one attempts to live an examined life' New York Times Book Review

'Margaret Atwood is one of the most intelligent and talented writers to set herself the task of deciphering life in the late twentieth century' Vogue