Atwood's books have become ever stranger since the wonderful "Handmaid's Tale". This is the the third volume of a trilogy. I've already read "Oryx and Crake" and "The Year of the Flood" and I advise you to do the same; I don't think you can read this without them.

Atwood is not a superficial writer so it is best to put some effort into exploring the layers she puts into these books.

The tale is set in a future where much of the human race has been destroyed and there are a few genetically engineered companions for the remaining few, including pigs with some human brain tissue and almost humans called Crakers. Through flashbacks and other devices, we learn some of the back story.

Atwood is a master storyteller, she just keeps moving things along, with mixes of horror, sadness and laughter. Here is a sample sad part, about us, today:

They cannot understand what they are doing to the sea and the sky and the plants and the animals. They cannot understand that they are killing them, and that they will end by killing themselves. And there are soç many of them, and each one of them is doing part of the killing, whether they know it or not. And when you tell them to stop, they don’t hear you.

The Gardeners had been thorough - no phylum or genus was left out of their list of feasts and festivals