The times and species have been changing at a rapid rate, and thesocial compact is wearing as thin as environmental stability. AdamOne, the kindly leader of the God’s Gardeners–a religion devotedto the melding of science and religion, as well as the preservationof all plant and animal life–has long predicted a natural disasterthat will alter Earth as we know it. Now it has occurred,obliterating most human life. Two women have survived: Ren, a youngtrapeze dancer locked inside the high-end sex club Scales andTails, and Toby, a God’s Gardener barricaded inside a luxurious spawhere many of the treatments are edible.
Have others survived? Ren’s bioartist friend Amanda? Zeb, hereco-fighter stepfather? Her onetime lover, Jimmy? Or the murderousPainballers, survivors of the mutual-elimination Painball prison?Not to mention the shadowy, corrupt policing force of the rulingpowers…
Meanwhile, gene-spliced life forms are proliferating: thelion/lamb blends, the Mo’hair sheep with human hair, the pigs withhuman brain tissue. As Adam One and his intrepid hemp-clad bandmake their way through this strange new world, Ren and Toby willhave to decide on their next move. They can’t stay lockedaway…
By turns dark, tender, violent, thoughtful, and uneasilyhilarious, The Year of the Flood is Atwood at her most brilliantand inventive.