Burning Questions

Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004-2022

By: Margaret Atwood

Narrated by: Margaret Atwood, Omar El Akkad, Naomi Alderman, Stephanie Belding, Amanda Cordner, Lorna Crozier, Tess Degenstein, Ann Dowd, Esi Edugyan, Kaniehtiio Horn, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Amelia Sargisson

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

From cultural icon Margaret Atwood comes a brilliant collection of essays--funny, erudite, endlessly curious, uncannily prescient--which seek answers to Burning Questions such as:

Why do people everywhere, in all cultures, tell stories?
How much of yourself can you give away without evaporating?
How can we live on our planet?
Is it true? And is it fair?
What do zombies have to do with authoritarianism?

In over fifty pieces Atwood aims her prodigious intellect and impish humour at the world, and reports back to us on what she finds. This roller-coaster period brought the end of history, a financial crash, the rise of Trump, and a pandemic. From debt to tech, the climate crisis to freedom; from when to dispense advice to the young (answer: only when asked) to how to define granola, we have no better guide to the many and varied mysteries of our universe.

Critic reviews

"[Burning Questions] reflects both the urgency of the issues dear to her—literature, feminism, the environment, human rights—and their combustibility...The book’s scope and the perspicacity of her writing evince the reading and thinking of a long life well lived."
—Washington Post

"Inspiring...Always in demand for her keen perception and bewitching storytelling, Atwood presents witty, parrying, and complexly illuminating tales about her long, ever-vital writing life."
—Booklist

"This collection is marked both by her ongoing concern with the ethical and moral issues her fiction raises and an appealing flexibility in terms of subject matter...Smart and concerned essays and arguments from an author whose global concerns haven’t flagged."
—Kirkus

“Canadian poet, novelist and literary critic Margaret Atwood’s diverse and intense interests in subjects from feminism to climate change are on full display in her latest book."
—Associated Press

Praise for Margaret Atwood:

“Margaret Atwood [is] a living legend.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“One of the most admired practitioners of the novel in North America.”
—Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune

"Brilliant...Atwood is a poet....as well as a contriver of fiction, and scarcely a sentence of her quick, dry yet avid prose fails to do useful work, adding to a picture that becomes enormous."
—The New Yorker

“There may be no novelist better suited to tapping the current era’s anxieties than Margaret Atwood.”
—Entertainment Weekly

Fantastic

Always a pleasure to hear the wonderful wisdom and wit of Margaret Atwood spoken through her creative story telling and backed by her research and. relatable experiences.