“When you're writing a novel, you don't want the reader to come out of it voting yes or no to some question. Life is more complicated than that. Reality simply consists of different points of view.”

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The line reads as a defense of fiction against simple verdicts. It suggests that a novel should not press the reader toward an easy yes or no, because real life holds conflicting claims at once. It lands when a story leaves someone unsettled, seeing that more than one perspective can be valid without being fully comforting.

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Originally said in English.

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About Margaret Atwood

Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and inventor

Margaret Atwood is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published fiction, poetry, nonfiction, children’s books, and graphic novels, and she is best known for her 1985 dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Her work spans 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children’s books, and two graphic novels, along with small-press editions of poetry and fiction. She has received major honors including two Booker Prizes, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Order of Canada, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Prince of Asturias Award for literature, and lifetime achievement awards from the National Book Critics and PEN Center USA. Several of her works have been adapted for film and television.

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Books by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale

1986

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alias Grace

1997

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The Year of the Flood

2010

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The Blind Assassin

2011

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The Penelopiad

2006

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