Although MaddAddam is a work of fiction, it does not include any technologies or biobeings that do not already exist, are not under construction, or are not possible in theory.
Most of the central characters in MaddAddam appear in the first two books in this series, Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood. Several of their names originated through donations in aid of various causes, including the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture (“Amanda Payne”) and The Walrus magazine (“Rebecca Eckler”). Joining them in MaddAddam are “Allan Slaight,” courtesy of his daughter, Maria (his biography is called Sleight of Hand); “Katrina Wu,” courtesy of Yung Wu; and “March,” courtesy of a blind draw on Wattpad.com that was won by Lucas Fernandes. Saint Nikolai Vavilov came from Sona Grovenstein, and beekeeping tips from Carmen Brown of Honey Delight in Canberra, Australia.
My gratitude, as always, to my editors, Ellen Seligman of McClelland & Stewart (Canada), Nan Talese of Doubleday (U.S.A.), and Alexandra Pringle of Bloomsbury (U.K.).
Thanks also to my first readers: Jess Atwood Gibson; my U.K. agents, Vivienne Schuster, Karolina Sutton, and Betsy Robbins of Curtis Brown; and Phoebe Larmore, my North American agent; and to Timothy O’Connell. Thanks also to Ron Bernstein. And special thanks to Heather Sangster of Strongfinish.ca for the marathon copy-editing session, after which she was faced with a blizzard and a car that wouldn’t start.
And thanks to my office staff, Sarah Webster and Laura Stenberg; and to Penny Kavanaugh; and to VJ Bauer, vjbauer.com, VFX artist; and to Joel Rubinovich and Sheldon Shoib. And to Michael Bradley and Sarah Cooper, and to Coleen Quinn and Xiaolan Zhao. Also, to Louise Dennys, LuAnn Walther, and Lennie Goodings, and to my many agents and publishers around the world. I’d also like to thank Dr. Dave Mossop and Grace Mossop, and Barbara and Norman Barricello, all of Whitehorse, Yukon; and the many readers who have encouraged the writing of this book, including those on Twitter and Facebook.
Finally, my special thanks to Graeme Gibson, with whom I wander through the afternoon woods of life, foraging for nutritious bioforms, battling hostile ones wherever they appear, and eating them when possible.
A NOTE ON THE AUTHOR
Margaret Atwood is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays.
In addition to the classic The Handmaid’s Tale, winner of the Governor General’s Award, her novels include Cat’s Eye, The Robber Bride, and Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy, and The Blind Assassin, winner of the Booker Prize in 2000. Oryx and Crake, the first MaddAddam novel, was shortlisted for both the Man Booker Prize and the Orange Prize. Among her other awards is the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature in 2008.
In 2012 she was named a Companion of Literature and inaugurated as a Fellow of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in the U.K. In 2013 she received the Innovator’s Award from the Los Angeles Times for her experimentation with both narrative forms and new digital publishing platforms.
Margaret Atwood lives in Toronto, Canada.