This is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel. You learn early on that the protagonist (pretty much the only-agonist) is the last person (or almost) left alive after a biological catastrophe.

I have seen writers take several approaches to outlining how the world ended. I have noticed two ares in which these approaches vary:

(a) how much information about the cause of the world's end is given in total (in [b:Oryx and Crake|15973770|Oryx and Crake|Jesse Russell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355145594s/15973770.jpg|21725418] you are told everything; in [b:The Road|6288|The Road|Cormac McCarthy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320606344s/6288.jpg|3355573] you are told almost nothing), and

(b) the time arrow (which can be crooked or straight, can be interspersed with the main narrative as flashbacks (as in [b:Oryx and Crake|15973770|Oryx and Crake|Jesse Russell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355145594s/15973770.jpg|21725418]) or can be simultaneous with the time of the narrative (as in [b:The Stand|149267|The Stand|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1213131305s/149267.jpg|1742269]), or there can be other approaches.

In this book you are eventually given full detail on how it happened, and this is engineered as a series of flashbacks (which make up a bit more than half the story) to the protagonist's youth and his friendship with a brilliant future scientist who will play a role in what's to come.

Atwood does a very good job in the narrative: the book is gripping and there is a nice balance of how far to develop a current thread before switching to another one, and how long to wait before returning to the previous thread.

The character development is OK but limited. The narrative devices used to describe people, such as conversation blocks, are good and effective, and I see the characters as truly different, so that is all good, but I do not see a depiction that introduces me to someone I don't know yet at all.