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Radio 2 Book Club: Margaret Atwood

Simon is joined in the Radio 2 Book Club by Canadian poet and best-selling novelist Margaret Atwood, who discusses her new book The Heart Goes Last.

Canadian poet and best-selling novelist, Margaret Atwood, joins Simon in the Radio 2 Book Club, to discuss her new book, The Heart Goes Last.

Stan and Charmaine are a married couple trying to stay afloat in the midst of economic and social collapse. Living in their car, surviving on tips from Charmaine's job at a dive bar, they're increasingly vulnerable to roving gangs, and in a rather desperate state. So when they see an advertisement for the Positron Project in the town of Consilience - a 'social experiment' offering stable jobs and a home of their own - they sign up immediately. All they have to do in return for this suburban paradise is give up their freedom every second month, swapping their home for a prison cell. At first, all is well. But slowly, unknown to the other, Stan and Charmaine develop a passionate obsession with their counterparts, the couple that occupy their home when they are in prison. Soon the pressures of conformity, mistrust, guilt and sexual desire take over, and Positron looks less like a prayer answered and more like a chilling prophecy fulfilled.

Margaret Atwood is best-selling author, essayist, and environmental activist. She is a winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and Prince of Asturias Award for Literature and has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times, winning once. In 2001 she was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. She is also a founder of the Writers' Trust of Canada.

1 hour, 55 minutes

Last on

Mon 5 Oct 2015 17:05
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2

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Music Played

  • Wax

    Bridge To Your Heart

    • American English.
    • Lemon Recordings.
    • 5.

  • John Newman & Charlie Wilson

    Tiring Game

    • (CD Single).
    • Island.
    • 001.

  • Odyssey

    Use It Up & Wear It Out

    • Disco Fever (Various Artists).
    • Global Television.

  • Odyssey

    Use It Up & Wear It Out

    • Disco Fever (Various Artists).
    • Global Television.

  • Katy Perry

    California Gurls (feat. Snoop Dogg)

    • (CD Single).
    • Virgin.
    • 1.

  • George Baker Selection

    Little Green Bag

    • The Best Of Cult Fiction (Various).
    • Virgin.

  • Lemar

    Love Turned Hate

    • (CD Single).
    • BMG.
    • 002.

  • Pigbag

    Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag

    • Club Classics From The 80's (Various).
    • Disky.

  • The Doobie Brothers

    What A Fool Believes

    • The All Time Greatest Movie Songs.
    • Columbia/Sony Tv.

  • Andreya Triana

    Playing With Fire

    • (CD Single).
    • Counter Records.
    • 001.

  • Buggles

    Living In The Plastic Age

  • Rudimental

    Lay It All On Me (feat. Ed Sheeran)

    • (CD Single).
    • Atlantic.

  • Ian Dury & the Blockheads

    What A Waste

    • The Best Of Ian Dury.
    • Repertoire.

  • Elvis Presley & Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

    Fever (feat. Michael BublΓ©)

    • If I Can Dream.
    • Sony Music Entertainment.
    • 14.

  • B.B. King

    Ain't Nobody Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

    • MCA Records.

  • B.B. King

    Ain't Nobody Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

    • MCA Records.

Broadcast

  • Mon 5 Oct 2015 17:05
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2