Margaret Atwood's 10 essential books

Margaret Atwood is one of Canada's best known and most prolific writers. She has written more than 40 books in nearly all literary forms including short stories, nonfiction, children's books and stage. Her novelThe TestamentsbrokeCanadian sales recordsand was named the co-winner of the 2019 Booker Prize.

CBC Books has put together an essential Atwood reading list: the 10must-read books from her decades-long career.

• Margaret Atwood: A retrospective on her life and career

The Circle Game (1964)

Atwood released her first full-length poetry book titled The Circle Game in 1964. The collection addresses love, vulnerability, morality and technology all themes that she would continue to explore in her later work.

With The Circle Game, Atwood won her first major literary prize: the 1966 Governor General's Literary Award for poetry. The book officially marked her arrival on the Canadian literature scene.

• The Circle Game puts Atwood on the CanLit Map

The Edible Woman (1969)

Atwood's first novel, The Edible Woman, was released in Canada in 1969. The Edible Womanuses elements of the surreal as it follows a young woman named Marian whose engagement sets off an increasingly bizarre series of events, which include the loss of her ability to eat.

Production company Entertainment One picked up the television rights to The Edible Woman, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2019.

• Margaret Atwood publishes her first novel, The Edible Woman

Survival (1972)

In 1972, Atwood published Survival, her first work of criticism. The book represents a detailedanalysis of Canadian literature its strengths and weaknesses in an attempt to understand what made the country's writing unique.

Survival became a bestseller and at the time was required reading for literature students across the country.

• Why Survival is a thoughtful exploration of CanLit

The Handmaid's Tale (1985)

Released in 1985, The Handmaid's Tale was Atwood's breakthrough book on an international scale. The modern classic tells the story of a Handmaid known as Offred who is trapped in a society where her only purpose is to conceive and bear the child of a powerful man.

The Handmaid's Tale won Atwood her second Governor General's Literary Award and scored her first nomination for the Booker Prize. It has since undergone several adaptations, for film, stage, ballet, opera and most recently, TV and graphic novel. A sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, The Testaments, was released in September 2019.

• The Handmaid's Tale becomes an international sensation

Cat's Eye (1988)

Published in 1988, the novel Cat's Eye tells the story of a semi-famous Canadian painter named Elaine Risley who is haunted by her girlhood best friend and bully, Cordelia. Covering a timeframe of the Second World War era to the late 1980s, the novel explores the dynamic between art and science, looking at themes such as feminism, religion and identity.

Atwood earned her second consecutive Booker Prize nomination and Governor General's Literary Award for fiction nomination for Cat's Eye.

• Why Cat's Eye took 20 years to write

The Robber Bride (1993)

The Robber Bride is a work of speculative fiction that was published in 1993. The novel, which alternates between the present and flashbacks, is an incisive look at feminism, morality and gender relationships in contemporary Toronto.

It earned Atwood a nomination for the 1994 Governor General's Literary Award for fiction.

• How 19th century history inspired The Robber Bride

Alias Grace (1996)

Alias Grace, which was originally published in 1996, is based on the true story of Grace Marks,a young Irish immigrant and servant in Upper Canada who is accused of murdering her employer in 1843.Alias GracerepresentsAtwood's fascination with the tale after reading author SusannaMoodie'saccount of the murdersinthe 1853 book,Life in the Clearing.

Alias Gracewon Atwood her first and only to date Giller Prize in 1996. It was also a finalist for several other major awards, including the Man Booker Prize.

• Alias Grace looks at how society views female criminals

The Blind Assassin (2000)

Released in 2000, The Blind Assassin is Atwood's 10th novel. The family drama spans the decades between the First World War and the present and uses several literary techniques including an unreliable narrator, multiple storylines and a novel-within-a-novel to tell a disturbing tale of love, greed and revenge.

The Blind Assassin won the Man Booker Prize in 2000.

• Margaret Atwood wins the 2000 Booker Prize

Oryx and Crake (2003)

Released in 2003, Oryx and Crake is the first book in Margaret Atwood's dystopian MaddAddam trilogy. The book explores scientific ethics and the potential effects of genetic experimentation, pharmaceutical engineering and environmental collapse.

Oryx and Crake was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize when it was published in 2003, and was a finalist for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2004. It was a contender for Canada Reads 2005, when it was defended by Olivia Chow.

• The dystopian fiction ofOryx and Crake

The Testaments (2019)

The Testaments is a sequel to Atwood's iconic 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale. It is set 15 years after the original and contains the explosive testaments of three women, who discuss the architecture of Gilead.

The Testamentswas on the longlist for the2019 Scotiabank Giller Prizeand was the co-winner of the2019 Booker Prizealongside British authorBernardine Evaristo.

• Margaret Atwood talks to CBC's Shelagh Rogers aboutThe Handmaid's Talesequel,The Testaments