Margaret Atwood grew up in the Canadian wilderness, in a family of scientists. Educated at the University of Toronto, Radcliffe College and Harvard, she has been a lecturer in English in Canada, the US and Australia. Her work now appears on syllabuses around the world. She takes science seriously: palaeontology, genetics, technology and the problems of knowledge itself are sown into her 30-plus books. These include Alias Grace, The Handmaid’s Tale and Booker prize-winner The Blind Assassin.
You taught Kafka to engineers in British Columbia. Why?
Kafka’s parables often have a conundrum embedded in them. The engineers liked the puzzle aspect. Also the parables are often…
