Margaret Atwood’s latest offering, The Year of the Flood follows on from 2003’s Oryx and Crake and sees Atwood continue to explore the threat mankind poses to the environment. Blending elements of fantasy and science fiction, The Year of the Flood can be read on two levels: firstly, as a gripping page-turner and secondly, as an ambitious meta-narrative which presents a frightening vision of what technological advancements and consumerism may play on the earth’s future wellbeing.

The novel spans 25 years and follows the trials of Ren and Toby, two young girls who seek refuge in the sect known as God’s Gardeners. The Gardeners are a religious-based movement who worship Mother Earth and rally against wider society’s mistreatment of animals and dependence on genetically modified creations. The Gardener’s idealistic lifestyle is left devastated once the ‘waterless flood’ strikes, which for most readers should serve as a timely reminder about the all-too-real implications of climate change.

Margaret Atwood has never been short of big ideas in her novels and The Year of the Flood is very much a thinking person’s blockbuster.