BY THE ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF THE HANDMAID'S TALE FINALIST FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE THE FIRST VOLUME IN ATWOOD'S DARKLY WITTY MADDADDAM TRILOGY 'Shocking and darkly humorous . . . A book to galvanise' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Towering and intrepid . . . Atwood does Orwell one better' NEW YORKER 'Both profound and impish . . . Atwood is one of the most impressively ambitious writers of our time' GUARDIAN 'Oryx and Crake is Atwood at her best - dark, dry, scabrously witty, yet moving and studded with flashes of pure poetry' INDEPEDENT Jimmy is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human. He lives in a tree, dresses himself in old bedsheets, and now calls himself Snowman. He mourns the loss of his best friend, Crake. And the voice of Oryx, the woman they both loved, teasingly haunts him. Before, Snowman had led a privileged life. How did everything fall apart so quickly? Was he himself in any way at fault? Why has he now been left alone with his bizarre memories? And why are the green-eyed, more-than-perfect Children of Crake seemingly his responsibility? Searching for answers, Snowman embarks on a journey through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride - a near future that is outlandish yet all too familiar. 'Gripping and remarkably imagined . . . it joins The Handmaid's Tale in the distinguished company of novels [like] The Time Machine, Brave New World and 1984' THE TIMES 'A powerful vision' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 'Atwood's dry wit makes dystopia fun' PEOPLE 'Gripping and remarkably imagined' LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS 'A roll of dry, black, parodic laughter' THE ECONOMIST